Jailbreak Community Brings macOS to the iPad

The long-held dream of running a full desktop operating system on an iPad is becoming a reality, not through an official Apple release, but through the persistent efforts of the jailbreak community. A new project is making significant progress in porting macOS to Apple’s powerful tablets, challenging the company’s long-standing philosophy of keeping its iPad and Mac experiences separate.

Developer Duy Tran has been showcasing the remarkable progress of a project called MacWSBootingGuide, which has successfully launched rudimentary but functional versions of core macOS applications like Terminal, Disk Utility, Activity Monitor, and even the developer tool Xcode on iPhone hardware. Given the close relationship between iOS and iPadOS, this breakthrough suggests that a similar port to the iPad is well within reach.

A Statement on Platform Limitations

For years, users have clamored for a version of macOS on the iPad, especially as the tablet’s hardware, powered by Apple’s M-series chips, has become as powerful as its Mac counterparts. However, Apple has consistently resisted this idea. Apple’s software chief, Craig Federighi, famously argued that merging the two would create a compromised “spork”—a tool that tries to do two jobs but excels at neither. Apple’s vision has been to keep the iPad a touch-first device and the Mac a pointer-driven experience.

This jailbreak project directly challenges that vision, not necessarily to create a perfect consumer product, but to demonstrate that the hardware is more than capable. It’s a statement that the limitations imposed by the software are not always final.

How is This Possible? The Power of Jailbreaking

macOS on iPhone running Activity Monitor and Xcode pic.twitter.com/wPGvNRtD6P

— Duy Tran (@khanhduytran0) August 11, 2025

This ambitious undertaking is only possible thanks to the jailbreak community and a specific, unpatchable hardware-based exploit known as “checkm8.“ This exploit affects older Apple devices with an A11 Bionic chip or earlier, allowing developers deep system-level access that Apple cannot block with a software update.

While jailbreaking opens the door to incredible customization and experimentation like this, it also comes with significant security risks and can lead to system instability, which is why it remains the domain of enthusiasts and developers.

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The New “Hackintosh”

The project has caught the attention of prominent figures in the Apple community. Developer Steve Troughton-Smith suggested on Mastodon that this could redefine the term “hackintosh”—which traditionally referred to a non-Apple PC running macOS—to now mean an iPad running macOS.

“Apple may not bring macOS to iPad, but it looks like we’re getting to a point where people can hackintosh it together on a jailbroken device anyway,” he wrote.

Duy Tran has shared a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter) showing images of the broken but working macOS apps on an iPhone, a clear proof-of-concept that has energized the developer community. While this project is still a work-in-progress and is unlikely to result in a stable, everyday replacement for iPadOS, it serves as a powerful demonstration of what is possible when developers push beyond the walled garden.