6 ms·

Does apple have a good reason for killing 32bit support? I play a number of games that will now never run without a VM.

4ad 7y ago
My speculation is that it's for the upcoming arm64 transition (yet another speculation). It's easier to make one emulator, than two.
em500 7y ago
https://pilky.me/apples-technology-transitions/ https://pilky.me/apples-technology-transitions/ Section "Why Drop 32 Bit?" (last quarter of the article).
- zmzrr 7y ago
  "when you open a 32 bit app, 32 bit system libraries remain loaded forever!" okay how about you fix that instead?
musicale 7y ago
The obvious development reason is to simplify and unify the code base, tools, and build process across all of their platforms. 32-bit bugs can also be ignored/deleted for future versions. The obvious hardware reason on iOS is that Apple can remove support for ARM32. The obvious business reason is to encourage subscriptions to Apple Arcade.
- jaflo 7y ago
  How is Arcade related to 32-bit?
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    Lots of games are 32-bit.
    - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
      And just to fully complete the thought, I believe the GGP is implying "Break existing Mac games, so that people who want to play games on their Mac have to subscribe to Apple Arcade."
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
oefrha 7y ago
Probably a step towards the eventual arm64 transition.
chrisseaton 7y ago
Simplifying the software and hardware. Seems a good thing to clear out the cruft? Use a VM if you need to emulate ancient systems.
mhd 7y ago
Killing it in the way they did? Not a dire technical one. In the past they managed to keep compatibility while switching operating systems ("Classic") and CPU architectures (68k -> PPC, PPC -> Intel). And that while being a much smaller company. This is business, nothing else. Just like all the increased "security" restrictions. Corralling everyone towards the App Store. I think they've got too much legacy to ever totally cut off "regular" applications, but apart from that they're doing everything they can to move everything in the direction of iOS (or iPadOS now). Not sure how long the days of the last commercial Unix will last.
- Kwpolska 7y ago
  The Classic environment was retired in 2007 with the release of 10.5 Leopard, and was never available for x86 Macs. With 10.7 Lion (2011), they dropped support for 32-bit x86 Macs, and running PowerPC software via emulation (Rosetta). Eight years of support for 32-bit apps is quite long by these standards.
- scarface74 7y ago
  Apple has supposedly been “corralling every one” to the Mac App Store for a decade. Isn’t it more likely that the conspiracy theories are wrong?
  - st3fan 7y ago
    Yes. And that is what they are - conspiracy theories.
    - phs318u 7y ago
      Conspiracy hypotheses.
- soraminazuki 7y ago
  I'd guess a translation layer would require much more effort to develop and maintain than just keeping 32 bit support. It wouldn't make much sense in this case because dropping support is the sole objective, not some side effect caused by architectural/OS changes.

4ad 7y ago

My speculation is that it's for the upcoming arm64 transition (yet another speculation). It's easier to make one emulator, than two.

em500 7y ago

https://pilky.me/apples-technology-transitions/ https://pilky.me/apples-technology-transitions/ Section "Why Drop 32 Bit?" (last quarter of the article).

zmzrr 7y ago
"when you open a 32 bit app, 32 bit system libraries remain loaded forever!" okay how about you fix that instead?

musicale 7y ago

The obvious development reason is to simplify and unify the code base, tools, and build process across all of their platforms. 32-bit bugs can also be ignored/deleted for future versions. The obvious hardware reason on iOS is that Apple can remove support for ARM32. The obvious business reason is to encourage subscriptions to Apple Arcade.

jaflo 7y ago
How is Arcade related to 32-bit?
- saagarjha 7y ago
  Lots of games are 32-bit.
  - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
    And just to fully complete the thought, I believe the GGP is implying "Break existing Mac games, so that people who want to play games on their Mac have to subscribe to Apple Arcade."
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

oefrha 7y ago

Probably a step towards the eventual arm64 transition.

chrisseaton 7y ago

Simplifying the software and hardware. Seems a good thing to clear out the cruft? Use a VM if you need to emulate ancient systems.

mhd 7y ago

Killing it in the way they did? Not a dire technical one. In the past they managed to keep compatibility while switching operating systems ("Classic") and CPU architectures (68k -> PPC, PPC -> Intel). And that while being a much smaller company. This is business, nothing else. Just like all the increased "security" restrictions. Corralling everyone towards the App Store. I think they've got too much legacy to ever totally cut off "regular" applications, but apart from that they're doing everything they can to move everything in the direction of iOS (or iPadOS now). Not sure how long the days of the last commercial Unix will last.

Kwpolska 7y ago
The Classic environment was retired in 2007 with the release of 10.5 Leopard, and was never available for x86 Macs. With 10.7 Lion (2011), they dropped support for 32-bit x86 Macs, and running PowerPC software via emulation (Rosetta). Eight years of support for 32-bit apps is quite long by these standards.
scarface74 7y ago
Apple has supposedly been “corralling every one” to the Mac App Store for a decade. Isn’t it more likely that the conspiracy theories are wrong?
- st3fan 7y ago
  Yes. And that is what they are - conspiracy theories.
  - phs318u 7y ago
    Conspiracy hypotheses.
soraminazuki 7y ago
I'd guess a translation layer would require much more effort to develop and maintain than just keeping 32 bit support. It wouldn't make much sense in this case because dropping support is the sole objective, not some side effect caused by architectural/OS changes.