Microsoft Surface Pro Hacked to Run OS X...Maybe

MacRumors · Feb 19, 2013, 09:39 AM

Pureinfotech links (via Neowin) to a YouTube video claiming to show a 'Hackintosh' Surface Pro running OS X Mountain Lion. The new Surface Pro tablet, which runs full Windows 8, launched earlier this month starting at $899.

Comments on the YouTube video are largely skeptical, suggesting that it's simply a remote desktop connection to a Mac. However, there's no technical reason why a Surface Pro shouldn't be able to run a hacked version of OS X, and Neowin notes that Wi-Fi reportedly is not working on the machine. One of the main challenges with Hackintosh installations tends to be with drivers for functions like Wi-Fi, so its absence may lend some support to the legitimacy of the claim.

Article Link: Microsoft Surface Pro Hacked to Run OS X...Maybe

milo · Feb 19, 2013, 09:42 AM

Cool that someone pulled it off but I don't really see the practical appeal when you compare it with say a Macbook Air, in terms of price, battery life, etc.

chainprayer · Feb 19, 2013, 09:44 AM

Safari seems... sluggish

gumblecosby · Feb 19, 2013, 09:44 AM

If a computer is x86 and fairly modern it has a good chance of running OS X. This shouldn't be a surprise. Methods for running OS X have become simpler as time goes on. EFI emulation , DSDT's and decrypters such as fakesmc.kext make it less painful now compared to the Tiger days.

aarond12 · Feb 19, 2013, 09:44 AM

Wow! Finally a reason to buy a Microsoft Surface!

Nightarchaon · Feb 19, 2013, 09:48 AM

I hope this is real, i can have the Hardware i want with the OS i want.

Apple, take a note, THIS is what the iPad Air could have been.

----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by milo

Cool that someone pulled it off but I don't really see the practical appeal when you compare it with say a Macbook Air, in terms of price, battery life, etc.

If a macbook air had a touchscreen, and detachable keyboard/cover you'd be right.

Tankmaze · Feb 19, 2013, 09:49 AM

it does run a bit lag imo. could be using remote connection, but really whats the point in using this as OS X machine if it doesn't run smooth. and no wifi driver.

Nozuka · Feb 19, 2013, 09:51 AM

Does OSX even support a touchscreen? How did he make that work?

pacalis · Feb 19, 2013, 09:53 AM

MS Office on iPad is news. Not Apple guy bricks surface...

Nunyabinez · Feb 19, 2013, 09:55 AM

No real advantage here because OSX is not a touch aware OS. I have a Hackintosh that I use at home and it works great, but I have had to do some kludgy things to make it work. Like a Creative USB external sound card, and I just finally found a good wi-fi card for it.

If and when Apple moves to touch as part of OSX, the surface might be interesting, but as it is now, who would want a Surface with OSX? A MBA would be a much better choice.

spyguy10709 · Feb 19, 2013, 09:58 AM

There is, however a technical reason why it can't be done at the moment.

It has a secured bootloader that hasn't been cracked. ONLY Windows 8 is permitted to boot. There hasn't been a crack yet to the bootloader, so this is physically impossible!

Faker than fake.
(MAYBE it's OS X server running in a VM? totally possible. VMWare allows OSX server [not regular OS X] to be installed in a VM.)

Nunyabinez · Feb 19, 2013, 10:01 AM

I posted before watching the video and I call complete BS. Since he is touching the screen there has to be some intermediary software turning the touch into something that OSX understands. You could not just install OSX on a device with touch and have anything happen unless you had drivers (Kext files) for that device to turn it into the equivalent of mouse events. This is almost certainly a remote desktop pretending to be a hackintosh.

decimortis · Feb 19, 2013, 10:04 AM

The Apple logo on the bezel looks all blocky and stuff.

gpat · Feb 19, 2013, 10:05 AM

We all knew this would happen.

Rampage Dev · Feb 19, 2013, 10:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spyguy10709

There is, however a technical reason why it can't be done at the moment.

It has a secured bootloader that hasn't been cracked. ONLY Windows 8 is permitted to boot. There hasn't been a crack yet to the bootloader, so this is physically impossible!

Faker than fake.
(MAYBE it's OS X server running in a VM? totally possible. VMWare allows OSX server [not regular OS X] to be installed in a VM.)

Its called Clover... know what you are talking about before posting. Thank you.

blueroom · Feb 19, 2013, 10:23 AM

I'd rather have a MacBook Air than a Frankenputer that sort of runs OSX.

Rampage Dev · Feb 19, 2013, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nunyabinez

I posted before watching the video and I call complete BS. Since he is touching the screen there has to be some intermediary software turning the touch into something that OSX understands. You could not just install OSX on a device with touch and have anything happen unless you had drivers (Kext files) for that device to turn it into the equivalent of mouse events. This is almost certainly a remote desktop pretending to be a hackintosh.

Apple does have a generic touch driver in Mac OS X. If this is legit then I would assume that that would be the driver in use.

aristotle · Feb 19, 2013, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nightarchaon

I hope this is real, i can have the Hardware i want with the OS i want.

Apple, take a note, THIS is what the iPad Air could have been.

----------

If a macbook air had a touchscreen, and detachable keyboard/cover you'd be right.

Are you out of your ever loving mind? That hardware has abysmal battery life and you cannot even use it with the keyboards in your "lap". It is a portable desktop as it requires a desktop in order to operate with a keyboard.

reden · Feb 19, 2013, 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nightarchaon

I hope this is real, i can have the Hardware i want with the OS i want.

Apple, take a note, THIS is what the iPad Air could have been.

----------

If a macbook air had a touchscreen, and detachable keyboard/cover you'd be right.

I'm sure Apple is taking notes right now thanks to your comment, lol.

notjustjay · Feb 19, 2013, 10:37 AM

OS X is not a touch aware OS, no, but it is gesture aware, and if you look at features like Mission Control and Launchpad, you can't help but wonder if the next step will be to integrate touch.

I was really impressed with Surface when I had a look at it a while back. But, I think there are still issues. It is clearly not meant to be a touch-screen only interface; if you were to buy a Surface tablet without either the Touch Cover or the Type Cover, you're going to have a very hard time. To me, for regular apps, touching the screen can be a great, tactile, natural input method, but it must augment the keyboard/mouse/trackpad, not replace it. You're not going to get far using Photoshop or Excel using only the touch screen.

balamw · Feb 19, 2013, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spyguy10709

It has a secured bootloader that hasn't been cracked. ONLY Windows 8 is permitted to boot. There hasn't been a crack yet to the bootloader, so this is physically impossible!

Not so for the Surface Pro:

http://www.zdnet.com/why-did-microso...ed-7000010935/

Quote:

"Like other Windows 8 machines, you can access BIOS settings and turn off secure boot, enabling you to load other OSes."

B

blueroom · Feb 19, 2013, 10:48 AM

Is it using a BIOS or EFI?

Rampage Dev · Feb 19, 2013, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blueroom

Is it using a BIOS or EFI?

Neither, UEFI BIOS.

Casiotone · Feb 19, 2013, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacRumors

Comments on the YouTube video are largely skeptical...

I'm really surprised that this is the case.

Menneisyys2 · Feb 19, 2013, 11:44 AM

If they do manage to make ML run flawlessly on the SP, I purchase one immediately.

Feb 19, 2013, 09:39 AM	#1
MacRumors macrumors bot Join Date: Apr 2001	Microsoft Surface Pro Hacked to Run OS X...Maybe Pureinfotech links (via Neowin) to a YouTube video claiming to show a 'Hackintosh' Surface Pro running OS X Mountain Lion. The new Surface Pro tablet, which runs full Windows 8, launched earlier this month starting at $899. Comments on the YouTube video are largely skeptical, suggesting that it's simply a remote desktop connection to a Mac. However, there's no technical reason why a Surface Pro shouldn't be able to run a hacked version of OS X, and Neowin notes that Wi-Fi reportedly is not working on the machine. One of the main challenges with Hackintosh installations tends to be with drivers for functions like Wi-Fi, so its absence may lend some support to the legitimacy of the claim. Article Link: Microsoft Surface Pro Hacked to Run OS X...Maybe
	0

Feb 19, 2013, 09:44 AM	#5
aarond12 macrumors 6502a Join Date: May 2002 Location: Dallas, TX USA	Wow! Finally a reason to buy a Microsoft Surface! __________________ Voted "Most likely to start his own cult" by my high school class.
	23

Feb 19, 2013, 09:49 AM	#7
Tankmaze macrumors 6502a Join Date: Mar 2012	it does run a bit lag imo. could be using remote connection, but really whats the point in using this as OS X machine if it doesn't run smooth. and no wifi driver. __________________ Check out our game Tank Maze
	0

Feb 19, 2013, 09:55 AM	#10
Nunyabinez macrumors 6502 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Provo, UT	No real advantage here because OSX is not a touch aware OS. I have a Hackintosh that I use at home and it works great, but I have had to do some kludgy things to make it work. Like a Creative USB external sound card, and I just finally found a good wi-fi card for it. If and when Apple moves to touch as part of OSX, the surface might be interesting, but as it is now, who would want a Surface with OSX? A MBA would be a much better choice. __________________ 27" iMac, 3.4 GHz i7; 15" MBP, 2.53 GHz Core 2 Duo; 13" MBA 1.7 GHz i5; iPad (3rd Gen), 16 GB; iPhone 4S; Hackintosh, 3.4 GHz i7 (2600k)
	1

Feb 19, 2013, 09:58 AM	#11
spyguy10709 macrumors 6502 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: One Infinite Loop, Cupertino CA	There is, however a technical reason why it can't be done at the moment. It has a secured bootloader that hasn't been cracked. ONLY Windows 8 is permitted to boot. There hasn't been a crack yet to the bootloader, so this is physically impossible! Faker than fake. (MAYBE it's OS X server running in a VM? totally possible. VMWare allows OSX server [not regular OS X] to be installed in a VM.) __________________ Last edited by spyguy10709; Tomorrow at 07:10 AM.
	2

Feb 19, 2013, 09:42 AM	#2
milo macrumors 603 Join Date: Sep 2003	Cool that someone pulled it off but I don't really see the practical appeal when you compare it with say a Macbook Air, in terms of price, battery life, etc.
	9

Feb 19, 2013, 09:44 AM	#3
chainprayer macrumors 6502a Join Date: Feb 2008	Safari seems... sluggish
	11

Feb 19, 2013, 09:44 AM	#4
gumblecosby macrumors regular Join Date: Jun 2010	If a computer is x86 and fairly modern it has a good chance of running OS X. This shouldn't be a surprise. Methods for running OS X have become simpler as time goes on. EFI emulation , DSDT's and decrypters such as fakesmc.kext make it less painful now compared to the Tiger days.
	1

Feb 19, 2013, 09:51 AM	#8
Nozuka macrumors regular Join Date: Jul 2012	Does OSX even support a touchscreen? How did he make that work?
	0

Feb 19, 2013, 09:53 AM	#9
pacalis macrumors 6502 Join Date: Oct 2011	MS Office on iPad is news. Not Apple guy bricks surface...
	2

Feb 19, 2013, 10:01 AM	#12
Nunyabinez macrumors 6502 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Provo, UT	I posted before watching the video and I call complete BS. Since he is touching the screen there has to be some intermediary software turning the touch into something that OSX understands. You could not just install OSX on a device with touch and have anything happen unless you had drivers (Kext files) for that device to turn it into the equivalent of mouse events. This is almost certainly a remote desktop pretending to be a hackintosh. __________________ 27" iMac, 3.4 GHz i7; 15" MBP, 2.53 GHz Core 2 Duo; 13" MBA 1.7 GHz i5; iPad (3rd Gen), 16 GB; iPhone 4S; Hackintosh, 3.4 GHz i7 (2600k)
	1

Feb 19, 2013, 10:04 AM	#13
decimortis macrumors regular Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Here	The Apple logo on the bezel looks all blocky and stuff. __________________ MacBook Air: 1.6GHz/4GB RAM/128GB/Mac OS X 10.8.2 iPhone 4S: Black 64GB iPad 4: Black 16GB WiFi
	5

Feb 19, 2013, 10:05 AM	#14
gpat macrumors 6502a Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Italy	We all knew this would happen. __________________ 13" MBP 2011, Galaxy Note 2 (oh noes i automatically become an apple hater) (Sorry for bad english, not my mother tongue!)
	1

Feb 19, 2013, 10:23 AM	#16
blueroom macrumors 601 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Toronto, Canada	I'd rather have a MacBook Air than a Frankenputer that sort of runs OSX. __________________ My iOS devices are not jailbroken. Bill My Blog
	10

Feb 19, 2013, 10:37 AM	#20
notjustjay macrumors 603 Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Canada, eh?	OS X is not a touch aware OS, no, but it is gesture aware, and if you look at features like Mission Control and Launchpad, you can't help but wonder if the next step will be to integrate touch. I was really impressed with Surface when I had a look at it a while back. But, I think there are still issues. It is clearly not meant to be a touch-screen only interface; if you were to buy a Surface tablet without either the Touch Cover or the Type Cover, you're going to have a very hard time. To me, for regular apps, touching the screen can be a great, tactile, natural input method, but it must augment the keyboard/mouse/trackpad, not replace it. You're not going to get far using Photoshop or Excel using only the touch screen. __________________ .
	1

Feb 19, 2013, 10:48 AM	#22
blueroom macrumors 601 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Toronto, Canada	Is it using a BIOS or EFI? __________________ My iOS devices are not jailbroken. Bill My Blog
	0

Feb 19, 2013, 11:44 AM	#25
Menneisyys2 macrumors 68020 Join Date: Jun 2011	If they do manage to make ML run flawlessly on the SP, I purchase one immediately.
	0

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