OpenCore Legacy Patcher
Hacker ApprovedMacOS patcher in Computers
Lets people install newer macOS versions on older and unsupported Macs that Apple no longer updates. Critics report sluggish performance afterward.
18 people recommended OpenCore Legacy Patcher in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
Summary written by Claude from 25 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 24 of those comments still count.
24 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 18
- mixed feelings
- 1
- warn against or regret it
- 5
The record
Recommended in 9 of 12 months
In 18 different threads.
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
Why it carries the badge
- 18 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
- Recommended in 18 threadsNeeds 5 or more, met.
- The biggest thread supplies 11% of its recommendersNeeds half or less, met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 23 of the 27 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Runs newer macOS on old Macs
“you might want to look at Open Core - which will let you update to a modern macOS.”
Comment from 1 Nov 2025 in “Apple reports fourth quarter results” “OpenCore patcher will even let you install Tahoe, which doesn’t have this problem”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: How do you reset an AppleID?” “Thanks to the community, you can install macOS 15 (or older) on unsupported macs”
Comment from 6 Sep 2026 in “Asahi Linux on M3” - Comment from 28 Oct 2026 in “New 14‑inch MacBook Pro with M6”
- Comment from 26 Nov 2025 in “Running Unsupported iOS on Deprecated Devices”
- Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Nanobrew: The fastest macOS package manager compatible with brew”
- Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Asahi Linux 7.1 Progress Report”
- Comment from 28 Oct 2026 in “New iMac with M6”
- Comment from 20 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: A native macOS client for Hacker News, built with SwiftUI”
Works well on old hardware
“Then I applied the OCLP patches and everything worked perfectly after that.”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Ubuntu 26.04 Ends 46 Years of Silent sudo Passwords” “Don't even know what I would have done without OCLP on my older systems”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “I replaced Windows with Linux and everything's going great” “It was a very simple hack and everything automatically obeyed.”
Comment from 11 Oct 2026 in “Apple/macOS removed from official Unix registry” - Comment from 19 Oct 2026 in “Linux 7.3”
- Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “Why Windows 11 still ships with Windows 95's memory manager hidden inside it”
Shows Apple's support cutoffs are choices
“Thanks to the OpenCore Legacy Patcher who show that not supporting old devices is a choice made by Apple.”
Comment from 16 Sep 2026 in “macOS 27 Golden Gate – Review” “OpenCore Legacy Patcher proves it”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “MacBook Neo Is So Popular That Apple Doubled Production”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Slow performance on older Macs
“The experience was sluggish at best even with a brand new SSD installed and RAM maxed out.”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Running Unsupported iOS on Deprecated Devices” “macOS with CoreLegacyPatcher on Ventura was almost unusably slow”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: Quality of recent gens of Dell/Lenovo laptops worse than 10 years ago?” “Thar be performance hazards.”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Newer macOS runs slower on Intel (undeniably) – on purpose or "accident"?” Upgrading can fail or take effort
“after some failed attempts to upgrade macOS using OpenCore Legacy Patcher”
Comment from 29 Jul 2026 in “About the security content of macOS Tahoe 26.6” “The road is bit longer when you decide to use Open Core Legacy Patcher.”
Comment from 19 Feb 2026 in “27-year-old Apple iBooks can connect to Wi-Fi and download official updates”
What people said
23 of the 27 opinions about it, picked in proportion to the three counts, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“can be helpful to run newer macOS versions on older hardware”
“Opencore legacy allows you to install newer versions of MacOs on old Macs”
“I'm on macOS 15, on an 11YO iMac thanks to OCLP.”
“I am running macOS Sonoma nearly perfectly on a 2010 iMac.”
“It was a very simple hack and everything automatically obeyed.”
“OCLP is excellent but it's all coming to an end for Intel Macs unfortunately.”
“Thanks to the OpenCore Legacy Patcher who show that not supporting old devices is a choice made by Apple.”
“Thanks to the community, you can install macOS 15 (or older) on unsupported macs”
“after some failed attempts to upgrade macOS using OpenCore Legacy Patcher”
“software that can upgrade old Macs to officially unsupported OSs”
“Thar be performance hazards.”
“OpenCore Legacy Patcher proves it”
“You could use the OpenCode legacy patcher to upgrade to v15/Sequoia”
“Then I applied the OCLP patches and everything worked perfectly after that.”
“macOS Big Sur and newer on machines as old as 2007”
“The road is bit longer when you decide to use Open Core Legacy Patcher.”
“OpenCore patcher will even let you install Tahoe, which doesn’t have this problem”
“Don't even know what I would have done without OCLP on my older systems”
“currently not supporting that version of macOS”
“macOS with CoreLegacyPatcher on Ventura was almost unusably slow”
“The experience was sluggish at best even with a brand new SSD installed and RAM maxed out.”
“allow you to run newer macOS versions on older and even unsupported Macs”
“you might want to look at Open Core - which will let you update to a modern macOS.”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.