OS X Daily claims to have confirmed evidence that the upcoming update to Snow Leopard (10.6.2) will disable support for Intel's Atom processors. If true, this will result in Atom-based Hackintoshes to cease functioning if updated to 10.6.2.

In the summer of 2005, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that the company would no longer use PowerPC processors in their machines but instead use Intel x86 based processors. This meant that Mac OS X was coded for x86 enabled machines and left many wondering if the Mac operating system would be enabled to function on basic beige PC machines. Not officially, no. Apple coded Mac OS X to only work on Apple branded machines, but online hacking communities have since been dedicated to altering the code to enable Mac OS X to work near flawlessly on non-Apple branded computers, otherwise known as Hackintoshes.


As netbooks have grown more popular, and with Apple's insistence to not cater to that particular market by not producing a Mac netbook, some users have successfully installed Mac OS X Snow Leopard on Atom-based netbooks, the Dell Mini 10 for example. Thus far, Apple has done nothing to the code in order to prevent Hackintosh installations. Florida based hack company Psystar has continuously sold unauthorized Hackintoshes for over a year and Apple has decided to fight them in court. Up until this point, the court battle with slack-jawed company Psystar has been Apple's only defensive against the Hackintosh community. But as OS X Daily reports, Apple may finally be fighting Hackintosh installations by altering its own code.

If 10.6.2 disables support for Atom-based netbooks, the hacking community will undoubtedly find a way around Apple's coded defense. And when they do, Apple will find a way to disable that new hack, and it will likely become a continuous loop of cat and mouse. Some who have installed Mac OS X on netbooks may be comfortable with constantly hacking their machines to run OS X, but I think that many users will likely grow tired of fighting the code to enable it to work.