Modern “Hackintoshes” show that Apple should probably just build a Mac tower

Boy did they drop the football in this area. I always thought the advantage to making the switch to more common PC architectures was the ability to keep pace and support a wider array of components and technologies.<p>Instead, they over-designed the enclosure and froze the high-end range of the platform. Creating a simple, but reliable tower design (optimized for speed rather than size) would have been extremely well received, would be nearly free money, and would have done wonders for the brand and their connection to creative pros.<p>Most of the pros I work with in the industry have gone from loving the mac to tolerating the mac. They are certainly looking around. I don&#x27;t love Windows, but I have to admit that the Adobe Creative Suite now sings on a modern Windows machine.

The problem isn&#x27;t that the Mac Pro isn&#x27;t upgradeable. That is a <i>symptom</i> and a <i>potential solution</i>, but not necessarily the best one.<p>The real problem here is that Apple itself hasn&#x27;t been able to keep up with demands. If they were able to enhance and sell a &quot;new model&quot; of Mac pro every 6-12 months, the problem would go away. Nobody <i>wants</i> a hackintosh, barring the long tail of people who like building PC&#x27;s <i>anyway</i>. (And that&#x27;s an enthusiast market, not worth catering to.) A vast majority of pros would just buy a new machine every couple years. So the <i>problem</i>, then, is that there&#x27;s no &quot;new machine&quot; for them to buy.<p>Positing that the solution is to offer an upgradeable tower implies that Apple can&#x27;t keep up with demand. Which, let&#x27;s be honest, <i>they can&#x27;t</i>. But the better solution here is to build a Mac Pro that <i>Apple</i> can upgrade in the form of a new model. That enthusiasts can upgrade it as well is a moot point (or an additional benefit).<p>Hell, they could even have a Genius-led support model that swaps out the guts of your machine every 12-24 months. Apple-Hardware-As-A-Service?

Why not allow developers to build their own Macs?<p>The situation today in completely different than 1995-1996, when Apple briefly allowed Macintosh clones, before Jobs killed the project because they were cannibalizing Apple&#x27;s high-end desktop sales. Now high-end desktop sales are such a small part of Apple&#x27;s line that they let the products stagnate for years. Are Mac Pro motherboards really going to compete with notebook sales?

For people wed to commercial design apps, I can totally understand the draw of running macOS on commodity hardware. But as someone who skews more to the hacker end of the spectrum and doesn&#x27;t depend on commercial software, the day-to-day qualitative experience of Linux is head and shoulders above macOS these days. Ditto OpenBSD, etc. I&#x27;ll never go back.<p>At least it does if you&#x27;ve already come around to using a desktop formfactor. For me I get lots of physical RAM (R &#x2F; Pandas) a mechanical keyboard, and one of those straight-out-of-the-90s Logitech marble mouses that you&#x27;ll pry from my cold dead fingers. Hardware support in Linux&#x2F;*BSD for any Intel graphics based system is a total non-issue.

May be it&#x27;s just me, but I don&#x27;t really care about design at all. I&#x27;m perfectly fine with huge tower or some reasonable fan noise. What I care is price, durability, extendability, repairability, and, of course, performance. I&#x27;m not really into macOS, I can use Linux or Windows just fine, but macOS is not that bad.<p>I&#x27;m actually opposed to thin things or design aberrations like trash can mac. I&#x27;m paying for that after all, with money or engineering trade-offs.<p>The best of both worlds would be officially supported hackintosh (that is, curated list of hardware parts, which are guaranteed to work for some reasonable period (15 years or something like that). But I don&#x27;t think that would happen, Apple is greedy corporation and wants piece of pie from everything.

Apple could literally just release the new Mac Pro in the old case, with updated hardware and ports, and <i>if</i> it was priced closer to reality, it would make a lot of their pro users happy. I doubt it would cost them much to do so too. I&#x27;d start it off at around $1500 for an entry level 4 core Xeon with an mid-level graphics card (GTX 1060 or Radeon 480).

Absolutely. I have a 2008 Mac Pro and it is still going strong, an absolute workhorse of a machine with 4 hard drives; incredibly reliable. At least, it was incredibly reliable with Snow Leopard, but MacOS X has been a bit downhill from there as far as reliability of the audio subsystem. The only real downsides to this machine have been that it is loud, which is problematic when using it for recording. But I would happily buy a modernized version of the same machine, and I&#x27;d be _especially_ happy to do so if it was much quieter.<p>If Apple offered me a dead-silent Mac Mini, even one with not much CPU capability, I would use it for tracking -- that is, right in the room where I&#x27;m recording. Also for Skype stuff for podcast recording, and streaming; probably two of them. These machines don&#x27;t need to have a lot of CPU to record; they only have to do a modest amount of live audio processing. They don&#x27;t have to run dozens to hundreds of instances of plug-ins like when I&#x27;m mixing.<p>Then the Mac Pro can go in the room where I&#x27;m mixing and mastering. So quiet is important but dead silence in the Pro is not really a requirement for me.

How about Apple create a &quot;Custom Hardware&quot; program ala their Developer program and basically charge $99+ a year for a legal install usb image. Then they can skip building a Pro and concentrate on the portables and iMac they like.

HP has stepped up to compete with the sealed Mac Mini. Their &quot;Z2 Mini Workstation&quot; is small, has user upgradeable RAM&#x2F;disk, optional Xeon and Nvidia GPU, and can drive six monitors, <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www8.hp.com&#x2F;us&#x2F;en&#x2F;workstations&#x2F;z2mini.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www8.hp.com&#x2F;us&#x2F;en&#x2F;workstations&#x2F;z2mini.html</a>

I&#x27;ve heard they are worried about brand dilution.<p>If that&#x27;s the problem, then why not create a subsidiary firm and call it, I don&#x27;t know, Pear, Gala, McIntire, Darwin or something. Let this firm build hackintoshes from off-the-shelf components. The trick is then to remove any reference to Apple and every logo from the OS. People &quot;in the know&quot; would be able to buy a Pear and use it just like a Mac.<p>This would be really cheap to pull off, just give some people a factory and a few million dollars, and would put next to no strain on Apple proper. It&#x27;s really just buying a few blessed components, putting them together, and creating a boot disk with the needed kexts. Any mom and pop computer shop can do that if it weren&#x27;t for legal issues. In the next year&#x27;s iteration you can talk about custom hardware &#x2F; buying at scale.

There is a lot of opportunity for Apple to still make a design statement with a tower. One that people willingly display. The key is that is not only does it need to look good but cooling fans need to be deathly quiet. Then offer it up in aluminum or black enclosure.<p>Dimensions are pretty much locked down by what types of video card technology they wish to support, really would love a new solution that doesn&#x27;t use the typical slots we still have today.<p>With regards to the mini, my only beef was when I wanted to integrate with my home theater white boxes just don&#x27;t fit. It had to hide.

Apple never wanted to be part of the DIY PC movement.<p>They adopt industry standards when convenient, but would be perfectly content to make a Pro machine locked to Moore&#x27;s Law and 3-year turnovers.<p>Dongles. Dongles are your Pro future.<p>Apple don&#x27;t want to be associated with the &quot;Gamer&quot;.

I already linked it, and I don&#x27;t want to make it feel like I&#x27;m hammering the link, but as the subject come up often lately. I wrote a small serie of article sharing my moving experience away from macOS.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;the-missing-bit&#x2F;leaving-macos-part-1-motivations-b10accc10889" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;the-missing-bit&#x2F;leaving-macos-part-1-moti...</a>

Steve Jobs - Apple Is Software - YouTube <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=dEeyaAUCyZs" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=dEeyaAUCyZs</a><p>Apple is a Software company, You just have to buy their Hardware first to use it.<p>Apple lately has been too focused, or too worried about the Design of the product and lost sight of its main direction.<p>To more accurately phase it, Apple is an Ecosystem company. You use its Software, Hardware and Services across all ( most ) segment.<p>I&#x27;d argue Mac Pro should be the one of those segment, ( representing 1% of the total Mac Sales, and more like 0.1% of Apple&#x27;s total revenue ) where they should make it impossible for average consumer to come up with a similar spec Machine with similar price. It doesn&#x27;t mean Apple is making a loss, it is more likely Apple is just making very little profits on it.<p>The Apple now, or the Mac Ecosystem now is very different to 20 years ago. iPhone manage to pull in Lots of new developers and Pros.

Apple doesn&#x27;t need to do shit.<p>What are our options?<p>Windows? Where Microsoft is collecting every bit of data possible while pushing ads.<p>Linux? I&#x27;m a geek and Linux is annoying, I&#x27;ve been a Unix guy since 1984. I run it on my daily laptop only because I&#x27;m not willing to spend $2,000 extra for a Macbook Pro with the same specs as a $750 Dell Laptop because it weighs 9oz less<p>MacOS is the only real game in town.<p>Apple knows they are in the drivers seat and they are skull fucking the public to the best of their ability. If you doubt it, see their quarter of a Trillion in cash. If they release just a Mac tower it might just break the spell and convince people they are getting skull fucked.

This is what they used to do with the venerable Mac Pro tower, built as recently as Mid 2012. The heavy gauge aluminum construction was a work of art. People pick up Mac Pro G5 shells and use them to build tables, benches, etc.<p>I am hoping that Apple returns to this sort of design philosophy. It&#x27;s quite frustrating that many of their iMacs are not (easily) user upgradable. Upgrading an HDD to an SSD requires cutting adhesive, suction cups to remove the display, disconnecting not-meant-to-be-disconnected cables from comically delicate sockets, and similar feats of delicacy.<p>The Mac Pro redesign applied the same sort of anti-consumer bullshit.

I&#x27;m not sure why everyone is so gung-ho for a big tower. I want expandability, but with Thunderbolt3, you can add now external GPUs, fast external drives, and (almost) anything else. And you then don&#x27;t have to worry about the thing heating up.<p>I owned a late 2013 Mac Pro for several years and it had the vision right. It was just too early and they gave up on it too quickly. I want v2 with a similar design, slightly upgraded CPU, thunderbolt 3 ports, and integrated graphics. Then pair it with an eGPU enclosure (like razer core), and get OSX to support this feature natively.<p>I also own a Razer Stealth along with the Core, and it&#x27;s a great setup. Only downside is they have to work with some shit software (Windows and terrible drivers). Apple would have the ability to own this experience from top to bottom.<p>I don&#x27;t think trying to stuff everything into a box makes sense anymore. Apple has paved the way with connectivity options, fast graphic switching, and fast bus speeds. Continue forward instead of going backwards.

Can anyone tell me their experiences running a virtual hackintosh?<p>In my current job I don&#x27;t need a mac anymore, so I&#x27;m switching to a NUC which I&#x27;m thinking it&#x27;ll be best to run Qubes on. But I do have existing mac&#x2F;ios projects that I&#x27;d like to support, thus the need for a virtual hackintosh.

I wonder what the OS and software guys at Apple think about the lack of options in their own hardware department. It must be a little frustrating to be invested into the software as a developer but know that a lot of pro users (people like themselves) are moving away from the platform.

You dont need a hackintosh to run a great mac for cheap(er). I picked up a 2012 mac mini off CL with 2.5 i5 and dropped in a SSD and maxed RAM to 16GB. Runs silent in a small package. Also added a 28&quot; 4K off craigslist (although it&#x27;ll only drive up to 2k). All for under $900

I&#x27;m not sure it follows that Apple should build it just because some people want it. Some people build Hackintoshes because they like building things or they want to save money. Neither would be addressed by an official tower.

I wonder if Apple would prefer to simply not be selling computers at all at this point, but can&#x27;t stop without seriously hurting their image.

Worse than the Hackintosh users, Apple have just about lost me completely to Windows.<p>Apple held my attention for years because I need Adobe software and prefer a Unix enviroment. I&#x27;m pretty happy using using a Windows 10 desktop with Windows Subsystem for Linux now. My workflow is pretty much the same as it is my MacBook now. So much so that I&#x27;d probably do the same with my next laptop.

I was looking into hackintoshes a lot in past, mainly in hope to build a custom Mac Pro that would fill my needs, but failed to find even a single build that wouldn&#x27;t require overly complex and risk fun with custom kexts on build and then with every minor OS update. Has anything changed today?

Profit margin, plain and simple. I&#x27;m willing to pay a premium for the best laptop, been using macbooks exclusively for years and they are actually a great value for the quality of the components. But I will not pay 3x for comparable desktop that I can&#x27;t upgrade just to run MacOS.

Stackable Mac Minis anyone? daisy chained and with a single OS controlling all the RAM and CPU power

Honestly, Apple should make a Mac tower, and then incentivize graphic card manufacturers to write drivers. Imagine a Mac with not last years cards, but current generation cards. No custom bios BS like they had before, just buy a card, put it in, install the driver.

Do we really need a full tower? Isn&#x27;t most of the space in a traditional PC &quot;trash can&quot; form factor wasted? The graphics card size would need to change, but it would be great if we could shrink the case and still have all the power of a desktop.

I run a Hackintosh for my home studio and it simply comes down to cost&#x2F;performance ratio. I can build a legit Hackintosh for less than the cost of a Mac Mini. EVEN IF they offered a new Mac tower, I&#x27;d probably still build my own.

I&#x27;ve been with my hackintosh for 3 years, first it was mavericks, yosemite and now i use el capitan. My pc is 2.99 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4gb ram and nvidia gt520 use only to develop. And works quite well.

If Apple can put an authentication chip in a phone cable, what is stopping them to lock down macos? They don&#x27;t want to do that.

Apple isn&#x27;t making a Mac tower because there is no demand for overpriced machines with mediocre performance. All those people building hackintoshes want a cheap Mac desktop. They won&#x27;t buy a new Mac tower should Apple produce one. They&#x27;ll continue building hackintoshes.

I purchased this (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.microsoftstore.com&#x2F;store&#x2F;msusa&#x2F;en_US&#x2F;pdp&#x2F;Dell-Inspiron-15-i7559-5012GRY-Signature-Edition-Laptop&#x2F;productID.333475500" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.microsoftstore.com&#x2F;store&#x2F;msusa&#x2F;en_US&#x2F;pdp&#x2F;Dell-In...</a>) laptop from the Microsoft store, paying right around ~$700 with a student discount.<p>I bought an m.2 solid state and a wifi adapter that is known to work well with hackintosh&#x27;s (the stock wifi card wasn&#x27;t compatible), and another 8gb of ram for another ~$150.<p>I followed this (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.tonymacx86.com&#x2F;threads&#x2F;guide-dell-inspiron-15-7559-skylake-i7-6700hq-intel-hd-530-using-clover.191921&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.tonymacx86.com&#x2F;threads&#x2F;guide-dell-inspiron-15-75...</a>) guide to get a nice hackintosh out of this laptop. Obviously this is a decent bit more difficult for the regular computer user to do.<p>So for ~$850, after &#x27;hackintoshing&#x27; this computer, I get: A laptop that gives me the choice to boot into an SSD imaged with latest OSX Sierra, or the regular 5,400 rpm Windows 10 drive. The last thing I want to do with this laptop is exchange the 1tb 5,400 windows drive for a 1tb SSD.<p>When booted into Sierra: The software runs exactly the same as using a real mac. I&#x27;ve done some video editing in Final Cut, some audio work in Ableton, streamed 1080p youtube &#x2F; netflix videos no problem. There&#x27;s decent battery life, as the guide above shows you how to disable the nvidia graphics card entirely when running OSX (doesn&#x27;t work anyways) to save battery. The specs are comparable to a modern macbook pro, and in one case even better.<p>Pros - Actually get 4k resolution&#x2F;screen<p>Cons - SD card reader does not work - Mobile graphics Nvidia 960m does not work, but intel 530 HD graphics card does just fine - Backlight adjustment doesn&#x27;t not work (could probably spend time to get it to work, but I&#x27;m fine without it for now) - Trackpad is a little too sensitive<p>Sames - Hardware: Core i7, 16gb ram - Full airdrop support<p>Where am I going with this? In my opinion the general public is becoming more tech savvy. If Apple does not embrace the culture of people wanting to experiment with code (theirs or not) on different devices, then they are putting themselves at a disadvantage. The guides to make hackintoshes are more than likely getting easier and easier as time goes on and support grows. (this was my second attempt and first success)<p>What a disappointment this macbook pro reveal was. So instead of spending $2,399.00 on a new 15&quot; macbook pro, I decided to hack together a very comparable one for ~$850.<p>I&#x27;ll take the $1,550 savings for a little software and screwdriver work, even with a couple of minor issues, any day.<p>As long as those dedicated apple fans eat it up, I don&#x27;t expect anything to change anytime soon. But for everyone else who can&#x27;t afford those business practices, there are ways like what I did above to get what you want without breaking the bank.

Quicksilver Tower was the best Mac in history IMO.

Apple did. It came with a G5 processor. Most people didn&#x27;t want to pay the exorbitant prices that Apple wanted them to pay for things like Apple-compatible AGP graphics cards and such when PCs got the same thing at literally 1&#x2F;3 the price, and they pretty quickly fell into irrelevance.<p>Apple would probably go the exact same route as they did the last time and fail just as miserably.