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This is just a rehash of Bloomberg reporting. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-09/apple-plans-to-announce-move-to-its-own-mac-chips-at-wwdc http

This is just a rehash of Bloomberg reporting. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-09/apple-plans-to-announce-move-to-its-own-mac-chips-at-wwdc https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-09/apple-pla... older: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-23/apple-aims-to-sell-macs-with-its-own-chips-starting-in-2021 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-23/apple-aim... --- Personally, I gave up on the Apple ecosystem years ago and moved to Linux. But I feel ambivalent about this. On one hand, the iPhone/Pad chips have impressive performance and power consumption, at least for the mobile use case. Some competition in this space can't hurt, and it will be interesting how well they fare against Intel and AMD in a different environment. On the other hand: this seems like a golden opportunity for Apple continue the path of merging iOS and Mac OS, turning the desktop platform into an equally walled and locked down garden. This will also be a rocky road for very performance sensitive applications which Macs are used for a lot. Like video editing, Photoshop etc.

pilsetnieks 6y ago
Funny how every regurgitation of the same article becomes more certain: "may" - "aims" - "plans" - "will". "According to people familiar with the matter."
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- ponker 6y ago
  A lot of reporting on every different type of topic is sourced like this, but from the quality outlets, the facts tend to be right more often than they're wrong, blunders notwithstanding.
  - skissane 6y ago
    A lot of the time it is because the information comes from insiders who actually do know what is going on, but they'll get in trouble if they are identified, since they were not authorised to talk to the media. (Or, more rarely, they actually are authorised to talk, but on a no-attribution basis only.)
zozbot234 6y ago
Discussed https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23465364 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23465364 Does this article provide any actual new info compared to the one from Bloomberg?
skissane 6y ago
> On the other hand: this seems like a golden opportunity for Apple continue the path of merging iOS and Mac OS, turning the desktop platform into an equally walled garden. They can't turn macOS into a totally walled garden, without making it impossible to use as a development platform. If I can't compile and run my own software, or software I downloaded from others in source form, I can't use it as a development platform. And Apple needs a development platform, for people to develop iOS/macOS apps on, and for its own OS developers to use in developing iOS/macOS.
- whatshisface 6y ago
  You can run your own code on an iPhone if you have a developer account. They could easily do the same for the Mac.
  - wayneftw 6y ago
    ...for 7 days. Then you have to plug your iPhone back into your Mac and re-compile the software and reinstall it. It’s an extremely shitty limitation that Apple put in place to give the appearance that they allow sideloading.
    - whatshisface 6y ago
      Sounds like the future for Mac on the desktop.
    - colejohnson66 6y ago
      They don’t claim it’s to allow sideloading.
- nsajko 6y ago
  Maybe they could go the route of herding most users to a walled garden, but giving developers more freedom? (yuck)
- solarkraft 6y ago
  > And Apple needs a development platform, for people to develop iOS/macOS apps on, and for its own OS developers to use in developing iOS/macOS. Have they shown developers much respect in the past? You can't even compile for the mac on other OSes, from what I hear.
m463 6y ago
I remember when they went from ppc to x86, and you could not only run your mac software, you could dual-boot windows on the same hardware. (a reasonable desktop AND good games) The future was very bright when that happened. Now, it seems apple is gazing ever more inwards.
- martinald 6y ago
  Windows is also on ARM, so I don't think they have to get rid of dual boot. Windows on ARM also supports emulation of x86 apps (though strangle not x86-64).
fooey 6y ago
It seems absurdly implausible to me that Apple can produce an ARM chip that can compete with Intel and AMD performance wise. Maybe they can get close enough on power consumption or instructions per dollar to be worthwhile, but I can't imagine any way an ARM Mac is going to be competitive for a workstation or gaming machine.
- martinald 6y ago
  The new iPhone SE outperforms all of the Mac laptops in single core performance, which is crazy. Even if you have a fast MacBook Pro you will get hit by thermal throttling all the time. So even if this ARM chip can't compete on multicore performance in bursts it may be able to beat it on sustained performance, which may actually make it quicker. It's not going to compete with the Mac Pro for a little while, but who knows. I think this is the result of two trends, firstly ARM getting so much better faster (especially Apple SoCs). Secondly, how dire Intel has been at improving performance. They really haven't got very far over the last decade.

pilsetnieks 6y ago

Funny how every regurgitation of the same article becomes more certain: "may" - "aims" - "plans" - "will". "According to people familiar with the matter."

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
ponker 6y ago
A lot of reporting on every different type of topic is sourced like this, but from the quality outlets, the facts tend to be right more often than they're wrong, blunders notwithstanding.
- skissane 6y ago
  A lot of the time it is because the information comes from insiders who actually do know what is going on, but they'll get in trouble if they are identified, since they were not authorised to talk to the media. (Or, more rarely, they actually are authorised to talk, but on a no-attribution basis only.)

zozbot234 6y ago

Discussed https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23465364 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23465364 Does this article provide any actual new info compared to the one from Bloomberg?

skissane 6y ago

> On the other hand: this seems like a golden opportunity for Apple continue the path of merging iOS and Mac OS, turning the desktop platform into an equally walled garden. They can't turn macOS into a totally walled garden, without making it impossible to use as a development platform. If I can't compile and run my own software, or software I downloaded from others in source form, I can't use it as a development platform. And Apple needs a development platform, for people to develop iOS/macOS apps on, and for its own OS developers to use in developing iOS/macOS.

whatshisface 6y ago
You can run your own code on an iPhone if you have a developer account. They could easily do the same for the Mac.
- wayneftw 6y ago
  ...for 7 days. Then you have to plug your iPhone back into your Mac and re-compile the software and reinstall it. It’s an extremely shitty limitation that Apple put in place to give the appearance that they allow sideloading.
  - whatshisface 6y ago
    Sounds like the future for Mac on the desktop.
  - colejohnson66 6y ago
    They don’t claim it’s to allow sideloading.
nsajko 6y ago
Maybe they could go the route of herding most users to a walled garden, but giving developers more freedom? (yuck)
solarkraft 6y ago
> And Apple needs a development platform, for people to develop iOS/macOS apps on, and for its own OS developers to use in developing iOS/macOS. Have they shown developers much respect in the past? You can't even compile for the mac on other OSes, from what I hear.

m463 6y ago

I remember when they went from ppc to x86, and you could not only run your mac software, you could dual-boot windows on the same hardware. (a reasonable desktop AND good games) The future was very bright when that happened. Now, it seems apple is gazing ever more inwards.

martinald 6y ago
Windows is also on ARM, so I don't think they have to get rid of dual boot. Windows on ARM also supports emulation of x86 apps (though strangle not x86-64).

fooey 6y ago

It seems absurdly implausible to me that Apple can produce an ARM chip that can compete with Intel and AMD performance wise. Maybe they can get close enough on power consumption or instructions per dollar to be worthwhile, but I can't imagine any way an ARM Mac is going to be competitive for a workstation or gaming machine.

martinald 6y ago
The new iPhone SE outperforms all of the Mac laptops in single core performance, which is crazy. Even if you have a fast MacBook Pro you will get hit by thermal throttling all the time. So even if this ARM chip can't compete on multicore performance in bursts it may be able to beat it on sustained performance, which may actually make it quicker. It's not going to compete with the Mac Pro for a little while, but who knows. I think this is the result of two trends, firstly ARM getting so much better faster (especially Apple SoCs). Secondly, how dire Intel has been at improving performance. They really haven't got very far over the last decade.