Q: Monolithic OS X, myth or reality? Should an OS X from a mac work in a different mac?
I've been told this by a colleague and I'd like to know if this is or isn't correct:
If you use take the hard drive from a macbook and install it in an iMac, then the iMac may not have the appropriate drivers, so you would need to do an OS X update to make sure its drivers are updated. Even if the OS X is the same or newer that the OS X that originally came with the machines.
He also mentioned Monolithic OS X, which means that, an OS X boot volume for a specific Mac may not have the necessary drivers (or Kernel Extensions, to use Apple terms) that another mac would need, which means it shouldn't always work correctly in another different mac.
All this provided both macs are able to run that OS X version (example: a 2011 macbook air and a 2013 iMac) and that the OS X release and update are the same or newer to the one they were released with.
I thought this was true for Windows PCs, but not for OS X, in OS X, my assumption is that, even if you install OS X without internet connection using an installer, that OS X will contain all the kernel extensions and should run whatever mac you install it to, provided it's a compatible mac. All provided the OS X version and build is the same or newer to the OS X version that originally was installed in the macs.
There's "system builds" specific for certain macs, but even so, if you installed a bootable hdd from another mac in this one, it should work fine provided the OS X is that specific build or a later newer OS X.
Posted on Jun 22, 2016 10:05 AM
Yes, it's the same for Macs as Windows. The main difference being the Mac OS is (mostly) transparent about hardware drivers. Windows makes it obvious it's installing dozens of device specific drivers.
When all Macs came with installer disks, those gray disks were machine specific, the same as machine specific disks that shipped with a Dell, Sony, Acer, or other PC. If as an example you were talking about Win 7, the build that came with the computer only had the drivers for that PC on it. For a retail Win 7 disk, it contains the info it needs to install in a way that's basically functional on a lot of different PCs, and when it has an Internet connection established, searches Microsoft's servers for the thousands of hardware drivers provided by the vendors who make them, if they aren't already on the disk, so the correct hardware drivers can be installed.
When Apple switched to downloadable OS's only (starting with Lion, 10.7.x), the firmware of those Macs retrieved the machine specific build of OS X from Apple's servers. Same idea as the gray disks, except over the Internet. You couldn't use the version of Lion available to everyone else via the App Store because that was meant for older Macs Apple provided driver support for. It was very unlikely to have the drivers for your latest release Mac that shipped with Lion. Bring this forward to each newer Mac and its provided OS.
Apple has always only supported a newer OS on older Macs, but not an older OS on newer Macs. Unlike MS, who provide drivers for all kinds of older hardware so you can run Win 7 on a PC made three years ago, Apple doesn't do that. The older versions of the Mac OS are never updated to include drivers for newer models.
Lastly, Apple used to leave it up to the user to learn what Macs are supported on what Macs. This led to many users loading OS X from gray disks not meant for different hardware. Then those users would complain about how badly their Macs ran. No surprise since the correct hardware drivers didn't exist. Later, Apple changed the installers to detect the hardware you were trying to install OS X on. If the drivers for that Mac didn't exist in the installer, it would refuse to install.
Posted on Jun 22, 2016 10:56 AM