Hackintosh

What Does Hackintosh Mean?

Hackintosh is a type of computer in which a non-Macintosh or unsupported computer is converted to run a Mac OS.

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Hackintosh is a portmanteau of the terms hacking and Macintosh.

Techopedia Explains Hackintosh

The Hackintosh technique allows an x86 and/or x86-64 processor architecture to run operating systems from the Mac OS X family and is designed through jail breaking or modifying a Mac OS for compatibility on x86 processors. The Hackintosh technique was initiated when hackers amended pre-released Mac OS X versions by avoiding Apple’s Trusted Platform Module (TPM), which uses cryptography to secure sensitive information.

According to Apple, Hackintosh computers are illegal, per the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). In addition, creating a Hackintosh computer violates Apple’s end-user license agreement (EULA) for any operating system in the OS X family.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…