Apple to debut multiple ARM MacBook, desktop models in 2021

https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/03/26/apple-to-debut-multiple-arm-powered-mac-desktop-and-laptop-models-in-2021

by t4h4 • 6 years ago

129 145 6 years ago

appleinsider.com

zootam• 6 years ago

This is nothing new, just the latest rehashing of the same rumor that's been recirculating for months.

davidgerard• 6 years ago

yeah, I was looking for something more than a single analyst's note here.

arikr• 6 years ago

Kuo has an excellent track record on Apple predictions from what I understand.

nodesocket• 6 years ago

Is the switch to ARM going to be for cost savings, or are the chips actually faster than current Intel?

phoobahr• 6 years ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21033371

sudosysgen8• 6 years ago

That's Geekbench. The differences in Geekbench for ARM devices and Geekbench for x86 are laughable. Why not compare them in a real life workload like a render on Blender or a kernel compile?

Nursie• 6 years ago

Still hoping for a 13/14 inch intel macbook refresh with the revamped keyboard before too long.

Or I was, now that I work from home all the time my need for a laptop is much reduced.

GrumpiNerd• 6 years ago

Until they offer pro-level repair service they shouldn't be considered a "pro" machine.

That means next-day onsite repairs. Not 3-5 days at a distant location, leaving the user without their computer.

jlei5232• 6 years ago

You're thinking enterprise.

raverbashing• 6 years ago

Still to be confirmed, I don't usually take "analyst predictions" too seriously but I found this interesting:

"Apple will no longer be held to the whims of Intel"

Apple switched to Intel because IBM couldn't ship a good enough G5 for notebooks and for scale issues. Given that Intel is not on track with 7nm and rumours of their CEO being seen in Taiwan the other day it seems history is repeating itself.

avelis• 6 years ago

I remember rewatching the switch to Intel being for performance per watt. Intel was way better at that metric than G4 or even trying to get a G5 into a notebook. Maybe ARM can finally achieve the suitable performance per watt they are looking for.

caycep2• 6 years ago

It goes w/ the core Jobs/Cook strategy of owning/controlling all their core tech.

(notwithstanding their core "supply chain tech" as per Ben Thompson's point on Stratechery).

The other thought...is it yet another loss of American technical expertise that they cannot chip fab w/ the best of them anymore?

birdyrooster3• 6 years ago

I agree completely. It’s also the case that ARM core performance is now close to parity with x86. With a little more time, the arm performance curve will poke out above x86 and it will be the perfect time to adopt arm for desktop.

DeathArrow6• 6 years ago

Proof?

unlinked_dll2• 6 years ago

I mean if it's just about performance, why switch architectures instead of using AMD chips?

dylan6042• 6 years ago

If it's time to make another CPU change, why not switch it to one that you control completely? Motorola->PPC->Intel->Apple. It just makes sense that's where they'd ultimately want to go.

oefrha2• 6 years ago

Alan Kay: “People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.”

Apple: People who are really serious about hardware make their own processors.

saagarjha3• 6 years ago

Kuo is extremely good with supply chain rumors.

philwelch4• 6 years ago

It’s not just that IBM couldn’t ship a mobile-friendly G5, but that Motorola couldn’t ship any improvement over the G4 fast enough because laptops were an afterthought for their primarily embedded-centric business.

Intel is one of two suppliers for nearly every laptop CPU sold today. If Apple was just disappointed with Intel they could switch to AMD instead. Either way they wouldn’t fall behind the rest of the personal computer market as they were at the end of the PPC era.

Instead, they’re making basically the same bet they made with PowerPC—that a different CPU architecture can significantly outperform x86. Last time, it turned out that Intel and AMD, by focusing on the PC market, could keep up with and ultimately outperform Motorola, since Motorola was more focused on embedded systems. This time, it’s Apple producing the chips, except Apple themselves are also more focused on mobile devices than they are on personal computers. So it will be interesting to see if this bet pays off this time around.

DeathArrow6• 6 years ago

There's also VIA making x86 CPUs and some chinese companies on collaboration with AMD.

jshaqaw2• 6 years ago

The question is as users should we care? If this is cheaper for Apple will they actually lower product prices or just enhance their own margins. Will this result in any superior performance on a cost-adjusted basis?

sudosysgen8• 6 years ago

This is Apple. Unless there is a major downside, they will keep the same prices or increase it.

electriclove• 6 years ago

Apple's gains in chip performance are incredible and I would prefer to have an alternative to Intel. If I can get better performance and they keep the price the same, I care.

caycep2• 6 years ago

for ARM, power per watt. It's always been the advantage.

Controlling the stack w/ better vertical integration as well will probably yield more coherent product design. You can tell re how "put-together" a product an iPad or iPhone is vs. a Mac these days.

While maybe not yielding direct customer, user-facing benefits, the under-the-hood benefits would definitely improve customer experience.

evo_9• 6 years ago

Users that run VM's because they need to run OSX and Win10, etc most definitely care.

timrichard2• 6 years ago

Also, in the pro audio sector it's common for people to spend quite a bit more than the cost of the Mac on Intel-specific DAW plugins.

libertine• 6 years ago

If this is cheaper for Apple will they actually lower product prices or just enhance their own margins.

If this would happen, most definitely the improvement on margins. Why would they lower prices?

scarface7410• 6 years ago

We have an existence proof. The iPads are already a better value when you compare price/performance.

Even the low end $329 iPad can hold its own performance wise to low and midrange laptops. The high end iPad Pros are cheaper and faster than lowend and midrange laptops.

mikhailt6• 6 years ago

Of course, we should care. We are talking about losing the standard x86 platform support (which allows for Windows/Linux support if not total OOB support) to a custom Apple platform that may be more locked down to the point that Linux may not even care to add any support for it (T2-Macs have been difficult to add support in Linux). This drops the value a lot if you're not an exclusive macOS user.

1. We don't know what impact this will have for Bootcamp and Windows, since Windows 10 on ARM right now is customized for specific ARM CPUs like Snapdragon.

2. Same for virtualization, we don't know the performance hit it is going to have. A lot of people still need to use Windows for specific software that is not available on Windows or macOS where 32-bit support can be retained with older macOS releases.

3. Going the other direction, ARM means we could also see easier porting of iOS apps to macOS via Catalyst with more consistent APIs. But that could also mean less focus on macOS overall and everyone switching to iOS to port to macOS rather than working on two separate versions. This has both pros and cons and we won't know the full extent until a few years later.

scarface7410• 6 years ago

Porting iOS to Macs don’t require ARM. Almost every iOS app started life running on x86. The iOS simulator runs iOS software compiled for x86 linked to x86 versions of the iOS framework.

jshaqaw2• 6 years ago

Since Apple effectively stopped innovating OSX a decade ago (unless you really need each new iteration of emojis) just get a Windows machine if Windows software is essential to your workflow. I have used macs a long time but got a supplemental Windows machine for my office to not bother with fiddly virtualization issues. Windows has largely caught up with OSX as OSX has stagnated or outright decayed.

It makes me sad to say that given the Apple fanboy I once was but reality is reality.

outside1234• 6 years ago

Is it really going to be a MacBook - or a laptop form for the iPad Pro?

shmerl• 6 years ago

Do Apple even care about their PC business? They basically let it rot.

thought_alarm• 6 years ago

Always a year away.

I remain deeply sceptical that Apple will move the Mac to ARM, and given their bungling of the MacBook lineup over the last 5 years I have doubts they understand what their users need from a laptop. I don't think they could pull it off without a great deal of pain for their users and developers. I don't think their OS engineers need the burden.

ttul2• 6 years ago

They’ll do it on a select model or two. By passing on some of the cost savings to purchasers, they will drag the market along with them as they gradually replace Intel. I would guess that they target the MacBook Air first, because there are likely large power-performance benefits in that form factor. They will build multiple processor targeting into the default build process in Xcode and will invest a great deal of effort and time into ensuring that app developers are well supported with the targeting of ARM.

They did this before with the move to Intel from PPC. And back then, Apple was a great deal smaller.

jmnicolas• 6 years ago

By passing on some of the cost savings to purchasers

We're talking about Apple here. I expect the new machines to have less perf but be as expensive as before.

clairity• 6 years ago

yes, and in addition, the ipad pro is being developed into a viable low- to mid-tier option that's even more mobile (for video, AR/VR, and whatnot). a perusal of geekbench shows that ARM is performance/efficiency competitive already.

but the transition will likely be more gradual (for instance, replacement times for computers are longer now), so x86 macs should stay around for a long while i think.

ghaff• 6 years ago

Or the (currently discontinued) MacBook. The evidence (and logic) suggests that Apple is on a path to reconverge their tablet and at least a portion of their laptop line. Which would be interesting to me if the merged device didn't have too many compromises given that I typically travel with an iPad and some sort of laptop (whether MacBook Pro or Chromebook).

chongli• 6 years ago

given their bungling of the MacBook lineup over the last 5 years

Wouldn't this stand as a reason to not be skeptical of the big move? Switching to ARM (badly) and breaking everything seems like it'd be exactly in line with all of this bungling.

I ordered a new MacBook Air just over a week ago, right when it was announced. If it turns out to be the last Intel-based MBA before years of pain and suffering with the ARM transition then I expect to be hanging on to it for a long time.

Having said all that, Apple is well known for having successfully navigated multiple CPU architecture transitions over the life of their operating system (s). If anyone can do it again successfully, I would expect Apple to do so.

specialist2• 6 years ago

I timed my purchase of my last PowerBook G4 (the last PowerPC-based model) based on similar thinking.

IIRC, It took a while for all the "pro" tools I used to get refreshed for x86.

crazygringo• 6 years ago

I have doubts they understand what their users need from a laptop

Better battery life and less heat, no? Isn't that the point of ARM?

They've done processor transitions multiple times before.

And whatever "bungling" you're talking about, I don't see what that has to do with it. It's not like people have stopped buying MacBooks and Apple has serious remedial stuff to work on first. Besides, whether or not your MacBook has a touchbar or whatever its key travel is has literally nothing to do with what it's doing with processors.

flippydidoodada• 6 years ago

Kou wouldn't be able to use data from the supply chain to know what software is running on future hardware. If Apple is releasing ARM based desktops its more likely they'll be iOS derived devices to meet new niches. Something that competes with the large Wacoms would need to be more easel like than the current iMacs.

oefrha2• 6 years ago

Always a year away.

Citation needed. We’re not talking about Year of the Linux Desktop here.

I’ve been hearing rumblings and speculations about ARM Macs since at least five years ago, but IFAICR never heard a concrete timeline attached to it, let alone “a year away”. And 2021 would be fairly consistent with speculations.

ken• 6 years ago

e.g., "Intel reportedly expects Apple to start the Mac’s transition to ARM next year" -- Feb 2019

https://9to5mac.com/2019/02/21/mac-marzipan-arm-next-year-ma...

p_l3• 6 years ago

Are you sure? It seemed to be consistent theme of Apple rumours since I think ~2012, until grumbling about shit quality overtook it from 2015 onwards, but it never disappeared. The timeline was not so stated, but it usually boiled to "it will be the one more thing and next WWDC".

gumby• 6 years ago

Not clear that Apple “bungled” the laptops as their sales have been declining roughly in proportion to the sagging of the overall PC market. In other words the flimsy keyboards may have increased their service costs and pissed of a small part of a key constituency but basically may not have itself risen above the noise floor.

For every person who complains about the laptops there’s someone like me who is happy with the direction (doesn’t make either of us wrong). I’m a software developer and miss the portability of my 12” MacBook. I enable telemetry so they know I almost never plug anything into my machine. An iPad just doesn’t cut it.

If this ARM speculation is even substantive it will likely mean a light super-portable machine for me and continued investment in the 16” MBP for you.

izacus• 6 years ago

I wonder if they'll use that as an excuse for complete lockdown of macOS and only allow AppStore reviewed software.

ttul2• 6 years ago

I doubt that Apple will completely lock down MacOS. However, for corporate machines, the presence of Apple-controlled hardware will enable more comprehensive control of the endpoint, which is arguably good for security.

p_l3• 6 years ago

Apple story on corporate support is infamously bad, and they don't appear interested in supporting buyer ownership of machines, unlike Microsoft (which requires it from the high end certifications).

speedgoose• 6 years ago

I think it's likely.

They may provide sandboxes for development, some kind of WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) or Docker on Mac, and a "Classic" emulator for apps that haven't been recompiled like they did for the transition between Mac os 9 and Mac os X, and from PowerPC to x86.

Meanwhile they will continue to limit web apps.

wyre3• 6 years ago

Probably. That's what happened with the surface RT tablet a few years ago.

wool_gather• 6 years ago

They can't do this unless they are okay with never selling machines again to anyone who needs to write code. There's no feasible way for all programming tools to be distributed through MAS. IPython isn't going to suddenly go through the marathon of crap you need to get into the store.

If absolutely nothing else, native developers: you can't have more than one version of a MAS app installed. Nearly every iOS developer I know has at least two versions of Xcode at any given time.

dhhwrongagain2• 6 years ago

That’s not true. Many people write code on Mac despite kernel extensions being disabled and SIP. What will be considered root will be a superficial emulation convincing enough to fool most Unix software

_ph_3• 6 years ago

I am torn, whenever I hear the rumors about the ARM Macs. On the one side, I am terribly excited from a technology perspective. I grew up with homecomputers in the 80ies, and in the 90ies, all Unix-workstations had several different, non-x86 architectures. So any disruption of the x86-monoculture is interesting. Also, looking at the performance of the iPhone and iPad, I think Apple has the potential to create some great hardware. It would also give them more flexibility to roll out new features.

On the other side, such a transition always is painfull. A lot of software needs to be rebuilt, and even more legacy software gets killed, as it is not ported to the new platform. Though Catalina already did a lot of that, and that might not be a coincidence, if you think about it. Catalina might be intentionally restrictive to ease the transition to another architecture.

Also, a lot of Mac users are running VMs on their machines. Running Windows and Linux VMs on your Mac was one big benefit of the switch to Intel. I myself use a Linux VM for my professional work on a MB Pro. And that VM needs to be able to run x86 software. So it remains to be seen, how Apple deals with the MB Pro (and of course the Mac Pro).

birdyrooster3• 6 years ago

I wonder if we could see more mixed architecture like T2. What would it look like if you had x86 and ARM on board?

scarface7410• 6 years ago

Apple won’t do it. There are so many architectural issues with it and you don’t get the power savings of ARM.

People asked the same question during both previous transitions.

ianai3• 6 years ago

They could make an x86 daughterboard for the Mac Pro. Plenty of space for that and it’s been done decades ago. Or a third party could.

I wonder whether they’ve got any special killer apps in mind for the desktop and MacBook ARM machines. They could theoretically customize them greatly since they’re designing the architecture. Also wonder whether they view keeping the unix developer pipeline.

jbverschoor2• 6 years ago

Battery life

philwelch4• 6 years ago

iOS development and, potentially, better support for Catalyst are the obvious pluses I haven’t seen mentioned yet.

thomascgalvin• 6 years ago

I'm still mad about Apple killing 32bit support; I don't have a few extra grand a year to drop on Photoshop. If they drop x86 support, too, I might finally jump ship.

jonas21• 6 years ago

I'm confused. Why would you need a few extra grand a year for Photoshop?

objclxt• 6 years ago

Photoshop and Lightroom are bundled together for $10 a month.

EduardoBautista• 6 years ago

ARM Macs are one of the things I don't want to be an early adopter of. I am going to stay with Intel as long as possible but I am excited about making the switch to ARM once it's shown to not be a hassle.

bitwize• 6 years ago

This is Apple we're talking about -- and Apple is what other OEMs want to be when they grow up. Not only will the Apple-designed ARM CPUs perform at or above the level of a similarly-specced Intel machine, but the ISA transition will be seamless, with a nearly-invisible Intel binary compatibility layer that does on-the-fly JITing. Otherwise, they simply won't release it at all.

Flow• 6 years ago

For me, the interesting development right now is the drastic increase of CPU cores. ARM or Intel doesn't matter much except for gaming in Windows.

But of course, Apple does often surprise us all, maybe this could be something cool after all.

dzhiurgis2• 6 years ago

Apples biggest debt was developers who rely on vm’s and brew. They’ve already booted them about while producing laptops without a reliable keyboard for 4 years.

ARM macbooks will be for youtube influencers. Sure they’ll be able to edit 8K (and when uploaded to youtube they can’t even view it themselves). Devs need AMD.

rado• 6 years ago

You’ve tried the Arm MacBook?

LOLOLOLO1• 6 years ago

I really doubt running ARM64 Linux in VM will be a problem. Most software from repositories should be OK as well.

_ph_3• 6 years ago

At work, I need an x86 Linux VM. Privately, I would be very happy to run an ARM Linux in a VM, if there will be VMs offered for ARM Macs.

zamadatix• 6 years ago

Windows and Linux have already run on ARM for quite a while, both are able to run x86 software while doing so (at a penalty). The main holdback has been lack of desktop class ARM CPUs.

rubyn00bie• 6 years ago

Yep, the real give away was the A12Z. It isn't shit all faster than the A12X with the exception of the added GPU core.

The A12X was so fast when it came out, reviewers were like "holy shit, this is nearly as fast or faster as comparable x86 laptop," and that was what... two years ago?

Apple's ARM processors are likely _so fucking fast_ that they'd absolutely be showing their hand if they put one in a tablet right now. Reviewers would probably be like "uhh this is faster than a 13" macbook pro and it's a fucking tablet?!" Not to mention, that'd be the nail in the coffin for a good (for Apple) relationship with Intel until they're totally ready to transition.

My guess is Apple is probably just not "quite" there yet for it's highest-end products or we'd see them this year. It's pretty lucky for them their custom silicon to-date has been so far ahead of everyone else or (appearing to be) sitting on their asses for a year or so might hurt.

TSMC is already capable of taking a shit on Intel (Ryzen 3000) and Apple is obviously capable of making very fast custom CPUs. It's a pretty dangerous combo if you're Intel right now and already getting hammered by AMD.

For me, the real question, and pipe dream, will Apple partner with AMD during the transition and perhaps make some some hybrid AMD x86/Apple ARM machines since they're both being built by TSMC?

_ph_3• 6 years ago

For me, the real question, and pipe dream, will Apple partner with AMD during the transition and perhaps make some some hybrid AMD x86/Apple ARM machines since they're both being built by TSMC?

There is an interesting thought. Apple could embed one AMD-chiplet with up to 8 cores into their designs, where Apple provides the ARM-CPUs as well as the io-hardware the chiplets require. This would retain the ability to run x86-code, while the system would use the ARM-hardware for most task.

taylodl2• 6 years ago

Bingo! This is exactly what I see happening!

Traster• 6 years ago

To be honest, I am super unexcited by this. What I want to see from Apple is a move back to high software quality, high hardware quality and real vision for their products. At the moment their convergence between iPad and Macbook has essentially been to add sub-par versions of macbook features to the iPad and to make the macbook a second class citizen in terms of quality.

My big worry is that actually this is just acting as cover for deep underlying issues in a lack of real vision for how the iPad can become a real replacement for laptops and no vision at all for the desktop line. How crazy is it that Apple is pumping out products that re-implement Microsoft features from 5 years ago (after spending 5 years mocking Microsoft).

seanmcdirmid• 6 years ago

I owned a surface and I own an iPad Pro now. They aren’t even comparable in usability, Apple is great at refining features and making them work even if Microsoft is better at getting them out earlier. It’s like comparing the iPhone to WinCE.

jlei5232• 6 years ago

Apple spent the last 4 years backtracking on features they introduced in 2016:

- Keyboard with more travel - ESC key

Now people are calling the 16" the greatest laptop ever. It's like you've been abused for 4 years, then the abuser does something nice, and you think he/she is the nicest person in the world.

Macbook Pros are still bad:

- Useless touchbar that makes basic functions harder - Resting your palm over an oversized touchpad - Dongle-hell - No battery life improvement in 8 years - Overpriced due to focus on thinness and useless touch bar

They should have taken the 2015 Macbook Pro and gave it a 16" screen, touch ID, newer ports, newer CPUs/GPUs and it would have been 10x better than the overpriced junk we have today.

wyre3• 6 years ago

What does this mean for software companies whose consumer base is largely on OSX? Will Adobe, Sony, Avid, etc have to port their library of software over to Apple's new ARM architecture?

Will this allow for greater freedom with ARM devices not running new OSX?

It seems like Apple lately has very much internalized 'if you build it, they will come' even though it seems like it is heavily alienating their professional user base.

flqn• 6 years ago

I'm wondering if they'll have some solution similar to Rosetta

scarface7410• 6 years ago

You act as if this is the first time that Apple has done a transition or the first time that the aforementioned companies have made the transition.

Each of them have made the transition from 68K -> PPC -> OS X -> x86.

wyre3• 6 years ago

I only know about the transition to x86 and from what I remember the benefit was the same architecture as Windows. Since them OSX has gained a lot of market share. Moving to ARM is definitely a step backwards in that regard. I don't know anything about the previous transitions.

I don't think transitioning to ARM is a bad choice given the benefits, but a lot of serious (and casual) users are going to be very unhappy their programs aren't going to work after dropping $1k+ on a new computer.

egypturnash2• 6 years ago

One would hope that after making both of the previous Mac CPU migrations, Adobe has all the CPU-specific stuff in their codebases well-charted, and is already playing with beta hardw— no what am I saying, I’ve been using Adobe stuff for twenty years now and they’ve only gotten less nimble over time, I don’t expect to even see a build for the beta test program until at least a year and a half after ARM Macs are on the market.

Maybe I’ll get an Arm Air in ‘22. My 2017 Pro should still be viable until then for what I do.

DeathArrow6• 6 years ago

I doubt Adobe's largest consumer base is on macOS. Of course Adobe and any other software maker won't be happy, but if it's worth it, they'll target macOS on ARM. Some software companies might decide it isn't worth the hassle.

fit2rule• 6 years ago

I'd be completely fine with a switch to ARM, as long as it was handled in the same way that the switch to x86 was done - with a period of fat binaries targeting both architectures, and then a gradual phase-out of the older architecture (x86).

I'm pretty sure Apple have the ability to put 32-core ARM systems into the MacBook, and push the power/processing ratio into the stratosphere. The only reason I'm not using ARM right now, personally, is because such a thing doesn't really exist .. but I look at my old Touchbook up on the shelf and wonder what could have been...

specialist2• 6 years ago

Shouldn't the first models to use ARM be desktop? Allow the early adopters to kick the tires. So that devs can make sure their wares work on ARM before the mass market models switch?

Waterluvian• 6 years ago

The only reason I could come to care about architecture, as a consumer, is if it provides a freakishly long battery life.

PopePompus• 6 years ago

Does anyone have a rough figure for what fraction of the power load on a macbook is going to the CPU? In other words, what's the limit in battery life for a laptop whose CPU consumes no power at all, but still has to power the display, refresh RAM, etc?

strategarius2• 6 years ago

I'm curious what Parallels going to do. Running Windows and Linux applications with almost native integration into OSX ecosystem worth a lot, especially with all benefits of hardware virtualization. In theory PC could be virtualized on ARM, however software virtualization only. Going to watch the process. In general, Windows and Linux support ARM as well, not sure if hardware virtualization for ARM exist though

saagarjha3• 6 years ago

Apple doesn’t have chips that support it, yet.

pmontra• 6 years ago

Maybe backend developers for Intel Linux servers will fire up a VM on AWS/Azure/Google and work there.

There will be some cross platform compatibility issues. Interpreted languages hide the CPU (think Python, Ruby, Node) but their extensions in C could need some extra work that not all of them require now.

On the other side there will be the rise of the ARM servers. Apple is notoriously not interested in running server farms for their customers but I expect that the big cloud providers will start offering ARM servers.

It could be the x86 developers to have to fire up an ARM VM on the cloud to be able to work in ARM Macs heavy teams.

scarface7410• 6 years ago

Packages with native dependencies already require a recompile to run between Windows and Linux. Right now, I write Python scripts on a Windows laptop, push the changes and the build server (well actually a Linux Docker container using AWS CodeBuild) builds and deploys the package to Linux servers.

Apple already has an x86 build chain that cross compiled to ARM.

mappu• 6 years ago

not sure if hardware virtualization for ARM exist though

Virtualization extensions have been available since the Cortex A15 or thereabouts.

Linux supports normal KVM on both ARM32 and ARM64 although there are mutterings about dropping support for ARM32.

In practice, the hypervisor is usually already grabbed by the platform (e.g. on Android/Snapdragon it's taken by the TrustZone driver and can't be used yourself, even if you rebuild the kernel with CONFIG_KVM).

strategarius2• 6 years ago

Interesting info, thanks. I also missed the point that Apple is going to design new CPU, they are definitely able to add any hardware virtualization instructions

jbverschoor2• 6 years ago

Why wouldn’t they be able to provide on-chip x86 emulation, exposed via hypervisor Framework? They can use that for backward compatibility for non-recompiled apps while supporting parallels/VMware

Also, the move to Catalina helps to check how fast app developers and users switch to new hardware.

Causality1• 6 years ago

Other than Linux distros, almost every home OS on ARM is a locked-down anti-consumer mess. Android, Windows RT, iOS, Windows X, Chrome OS. I'm hoping MacOS doesn't follow them down that road of locked bootloaders and anti-root restrictions.

dhhwrongagain2• 6 years ago

Get ready to not have root access on your laptop. The writing is on the wall:

  * signed software restrictions 
  * no kernel extensions
  * SIP

Dropping x86 compatibility will be the last nail in the coffin. Buy the x86 platform if you value your freedom, buy arm if you want a larger form factor smartphone

rgovostes• 6 years ago

There's no evidence for this. They could remove root access now on x86 if they wanted to. They didn't have to spend engineering hours making it possible to disable SIP when they turned it on. Most software signature restrictions that have been added to macOS to date are easily disabled, and besides that have nothing to do with x86 vs ARM.

DeathArrow6• 6 years ago

Apple would love more lock in and transforming Macs into giant iPhones with app store only apps.

However, breaking compatibility with Windows and Linux would be a terrible idea. People would flee to other platforms leaving Mac for those who are already locked in, like iOS developers.

People care most about running their software to do their work, than what os they use.

Apple to debut multiple ARM MacBook, desktop models in 2021

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