Generally speaking, we say something is Vanilla when it’s as “pure” as its producer did in computing world. (The term Vanilla is mainly used in an unix environment to indicate that the Kernel is without any modifications) Regardless of the fact that it’s really difficult to have a hardware which is 100% compatible with the operating systems from Apple(AKA OS X or Mac ), so we use the word “Vanilla” to describe that the kernel of the operating system is pure. And here are some examples:
Let’s say I have a real Macintosh: I have a system 100% Vanilla .. Why ?
For the simple fact that the hardware is fully compatible, and therefore the software (Kernel, Kext, Applications) did not require modification (in other words patch).I have a Intel Hackintosh: I have a system almost 100% Vanilla .. Why ?
The reasons may be due to the fact that even though some minor changes to the software (and its various components ) need to be made.I have a AMD Hackintosh:I would not have a Vanilla .. Why ?
The reasons are due to the fact that the Apple hardware does not provide support for AMD processors (currently only Intel and PPC),so it’s impossible for us to use a Vanilla kernel.
What does “patch” mean?
It means that you have to make changes (eg to a Kext)
What does “binpatch” mean?
It means that you must make changes to the binaries (applications, generically commands)