“Today’s Macs use standard Intel-type components. A key difference from Windows is that Mac OS X loads though a boot mechanism known as EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface),” Chris Bidmead reports for The Register. “Some obscure Apple-proprietary concoction, no doubt? Far from it. EFI, now officially called UEFI – the ‘U’ stands for ‘universal’ – is an open standard, originally devised by Intel as a replacement for the ageing Bios boot system.”
“Unlike the 16-bit Bios, EFI can be 32- or 64-bit, and is much more flexible,” Bidmead reports. “In particular, with suitable hardware, you can tweak EFI to persuade a Mac OS X installer that it’s installing onto a Mac. A generic Intel machine on which you’re running the Mac operating system has become known as a ‘Hackintosh.'”
Bidmead reports, “Pioneer Hackintoshers had to hack the official Mac operating system. These days it’s easier: you just buy the standard Snow Leopard installation disk from the Apple Store, and rely on EFI to set up the hardware environment and install the necessary kexts.”
Read on in the full article here.
