The closest you can do, is to install Darwin (opensource), and GNUstep (opensource).
Then you can develop Openstep/Cocoa applications on your non-Apple laptop legally and in total freedom.
If you have customers who would want a MacOSX executable, you would then give them your sources, they would download Xcode, and they would compile them. This is why the GPL has been invented (or other licenses such as BSD, MIT, etc).
Now of course, GNUstep doesn't track the evolution of Apple Cocoa very closely. Your application will be compilable for MacOSX if you take some care to write it portably, and you won't be able to take advantage of Cocoa specific features, only the most vanilla and plain Openstep features. Depending on the kind of application, this may be more than enough.
Yeah, it works on a variety of models with variable levels of tinkering required. Compatibility should substantially improve in the coming months with these new Skylake Mac laptops.
As a long time macOS developer and user I too went down this road and ended up pretty frustrated. Even when you get things working perfectly (tackling iCloud services, driver issues, custom boot options, etc...) you're left with an installation that feels static.
Updates are slower to roll-out to the hackintoshes, major OS upgrades can be quite a bit slower to come. This can include security fixes too.
I ended up installing Linux and never looked back. It turns out most of what I used on macOS was just the unix-like subsystem. Having Linux was just as good, if not better than being on macOS.
Of course this doesn't help if you're doing iOS development, or need to use Xcode. I've moved away, myself, but have talked to others who have used a Mac Mini as a build machine. You could also install OS X in a Virtual Machine under Linux and use it for development, which requires its own set of hacks but fewer.
Linux distributions I would recommend:
* Solus, I really like where this project is going and it's my daily driver now.
* Arch, allows/forces a truly custom setup, you end up learning a lot about your system, but might be too distracted with your system to get work done ;)
* Antergos, an Arch alternative w/ batteries included.
* elementary OS, it's the Linux distro made by the folks who loved macOS. It's beautiful and you might like it more than macOS itself.
Had Lion on my W520, worked pretty well, after having to change WiFi card to Apple compatible. GPU was Nvidia only. Couple of other minor niggles. Somewhere around Mavericks/Yosemite it became more trouble than it was worth.
Having seen announced machine, and the price, I'm going Linux for next laptop. Might try to get a mini from ebay.
Please don't discount the value of building your system the hard way, aka "the Arch way". The more duct tape there is, the more headache you'll have later IMO. I recommend you sit down with the wonderful Arch Wiki and build your system from scratch over anything else if it can be helped. And of course, contribute :)
Long time Mac user here (done accelerators, clones, and hacks)
Save your sanity and money - you can get some nice specced refurbished/used MacBooks that can just run the latest Apple stuff for a good price and save a lot of frustration with foreign hardware issues now and down the road.
Things will "just work" and you will really appreciate it.
Doing the whole hackintosh thing has improved from previous years. Before it was an absolute nightmare. It's still a lot of pain. Just less. So you have that option as well. Just remember it doesn't play nice with all hardware and you will have to fiddle a lot. Every update you will have to do your research and pray to the god of moving bits that it's a smooth transition.
With a second GPU you can get near bare metal performance by using PCI passthrough [1] on UEFI systems. The VM gets exclusive ownership of one adapter essentially. I am currently running Arch for a host, Photoshop via Wine and in Win VM. In the VM it runs far better, just like a native Windows dual boot. I use various Windows and Mac VMs and I routinely game on one monitor while my spouse plays games on the other, runs great. We've joked that Windows 10 runs better in Linux and is easier to manage.
edit: Less overhead required for quick usage but no super cow powers, thats why I bother loading via Wine also sometimes. I know someone was wondering...
Also, my Wacom works flawlessly across all OS and seamlessly transitions in a QT5 virtmanager session from Plasma to Windows. ymmv, consult docs for configuration options. I've seen people saying you cant do this, bs.
This sounds very attractive.
Do you have to have a specific gpu chipset for OS X if you do the pci pass through? Would you consider listing your hardware?
26 comments
[ 5.7 ms ] story [ 59.1 ms ] threadthen choose your osx version...
The closest you can do, is to install Darwin (opensource), and GNUstep (opensource).
Then you can develop Openstep/Cocoa applications on your non-Apple laptop legally and in total freedom.
If you have customers who would want a MacOSX executable, you would then give them your sources, they would download Xcode, and they would compile them. This is why the GPL has been invented (or other licenses such as BSD, MIT, etc).
Now of course, GNUstep doesn't track the evolution of Apple Cocoa very closely. Your application will be compilable for MacOSX if you take some care to write it portably, and you won't be able to take advantage of Cocoa specific features, only the most vanilla and plain Openstep features. Depending on the kind of application, this may be more than enough.
For a better SNR than browsing Tonymacx86 forums, try https://reddit.com/r/hackintosh
Updates are slower to roll-out to the hackintoshes, major OS upgrades can be quite a bit slower to come. This can include security fixes too.
I ended up installing Linux and never looked back. It turns out most of what I used on macOS was just the unix-like subsystem. Having Linux was just as good, if not better than being on macOS.
Of course this doesn't help if you're doing iOS development, or need to use Xcode. I've moved away, myself, but have talked to others who have used a Mac Mini as a build machine. You could also install OS X in a Virtual Machine under Linux and use it for development, which requires its own set of hacks but fewer.
Linux distributions I would recommend:
* Solus, I really like where this project is going and it's my daily driver now.
* Arch, allows/forces a truly custom setup, you end up learning a lot about your system, but might be too distracted with your system to get work done ;)
* Antergos, an Arch alternative w/ batteries included.
* elementary OS, it's the Linux distro made by the folks who loved macOS. It's beautiful and you might like it more than macOS itself.
Had Lion on my W520, worked pretty well, after having to change WiFi card to Apple compatible. GPU was Nvidia only. Couple of other minor niggles. Somewhere around Mavericks/Yosemite it became more trouble than it was worth.
Having seen announced machine, and the price, I'm going Linux for next laptop. Might try to get a mini from ebay.
Save your sanity and money - you can get some nice specced refurbished/used MacBooks that can just run the latest Apple stuff for a good price and save a lot of frustration with foreign hardware issues now and down the road.
Things will "just work" and you will really appreciate it.
http://techsviewer.com/install-macos-sierra-vmware-windows/
Doing the whole hackintosh thing has improved from previous years. Before it was an absolute nightmare. It's still a lot of pain. Just less. So you have that option as well. Just remember it doesn't play nice with all hardware and you will have to fiddle a lot. Every update you will have to do your research and pray to the god of moving bits that it's a smooth transition.
[1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PCI_passthrough_via_OVM...
edit: Less overhead required for quick usage but no super cow powers, thats why I bother loading via Wine also sometimes. I know someone was wondering...
Also, my Wacom works flawlessly across all OS and seamlessly transitions in a QT5 virtmanager session from Plasma to Windows. ymmv, consult docs for configuration options. I've seen people saying you cant do this, bs.
http://hwbot.org/submission/2365111_guiltypixel_cpu_frequenc...