In the past few weeks, we have seen a large number of developers working with Apple devices to run different operating systems. It was already possible to run Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on iPhone 7 and, in about 5 days, Corellium was able to port Linux to the new Macs with Apple M1, a great desire from enthusiasts of Open Source distros.
Now, another curious experiment draws attention: developer Yevgen Yakovliev was able to run macOS Catalina on the latest iPad Pro. Yakovliev posted an extensive 40-minute video on YouTube, showing how the main features of the desktop operating system work normally. . The initialization takes about 20 minutes, but the developer guarantees that he was able to optimize it and reduced the time to around 5 to 7 minutes.
The feat was accomplished by combining the UTM application, which allows the reproduction of virtual machines on iOS devices, with a method called OSX-KVM, available on GitHub. It is a modified version of the Linux KVM, a tool that transforms the kernel into a virtual machine execution environment, prepared for macOS.
https://youtu.be/od4rT-XpiIQ
As the 9to5Mac website noted, the OSX-KVM documentation, produced by developer Dhiru Kholia, reveals that the team is looking for help to “run macOS in Cloud environments like AWS”, which is a strong indication that the Yakovliev modification is a virtual Hackintosh reproduced in the Cloud.
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Kholia also cites legal implications, noting that Apple’s OSK, an important element for running macOS, is widely available on the internet and even in a public court document, thus being included among OSX-KVM codes. The situation is very similar to the process in which the Cupertino giant lost to Corellium itself through the virtualization of iOS.