The iPad Pro is so great you can run Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard on it. But only if you hate yourself.

By Oliver Haslam
published

iPad Pro Running Macos
iPad Pro Running Macos (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • A YouTube video shows Mac OS X 10.5 Snow Leopard running on an iPad Pro.
  • The whole thing runs as a virtual machine.
  • The fact it works is one thing. That I'm making you watch it, is another.

Way back before the iPad was announced we pretty much knew that Apple was working on a tablet. But what would it look like? Would it be a MacBook without the keyboard? Would it run Mac OS X? Both were correct in their own ways, with iOS being Mac OS X at its core. But now an iPad Pro does run the Mac's operating system. I just don't really know why it does it.

YouTuber Hacking Jules has released a new video showing us Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard running on a brand new 2020 iPad Pro via the magic of a virtual machine. No jailbreak is required and it seems to work surprisingly well. So well that none of the video needed to be sped up – everything you're seeing here is real-time.

You can find more information about the app that makes this work – UTM – over at its website and the good news is that it's free. So if you fancy breaking the laws of decency and making something like this happen in your own home, you probably can.

Just make sure the curtains are closed. Nobody needs to see this.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.

3 Comments
  • How come it can’t run Catilina?
  • I've noticed that Snow Leopard was the first OS to stop supporting PowerPC, so maybe PowerPC was easier to get working on the iPad than the standard Intel x86. It would be really cool to see Catalina working though
  • I was hoping it's not because of lack of power. Like I said earlier, running iOS fast is alot different than running MacOS fast. So the claims of the ipad being faster than real computers is somewhat skewed.