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But the instruction set (ISA) absolutely matters for the entire software ecosystem!
by 0x0 6y ago
But the instruction set (ISA) absolutely matters for the entire software ecosystem!
- kps 6y agoIt doesn't. Ninety-nine point five nines of software is architecture-independent, and if you're an App Store sharecropper you'll never notice. It's the users with paid-for x86 binaries who will be screwed, like they were when Apple removed the ability to run PowerPC binaries in OS X 10.7. [Dis]claimer: I have no long or short in AAPL. Anyone posting or voting in this thread should similarly disclose.
- fomine3 6y agoRunning Linux on VM is essential for devs so it's difficult to switch to arch that Linux doesn't support well.
- kps 6y agoThey mentioned running Linux in a VM at least twice in the keynote. I'm not sure why, unless it's an acknowledgement that OS X is no longer a usable development environment. Linux, like any OS written in the past 30 years, is substantially architecture-independent. My day job involves coding for several devices with Linux kernels on ARM (32bit) and Aarch64 and I have no idea which is which, nor any need to. [Dis]claimer: I have no long or short in AAPL. Anyone posting or voting in this thread should similarly disclose.
- fomine3 6y agoI don't say ARM is not suitable. Linux able to support new arch but it not means ecosystem going to support any arch. ARM is great arch for now.
- kps 6y agoARM isn't new. Not even Aarch64 is new. (‘ARM’ has become meaningless marketing drivel; there are physically existing pairs of 32-bit ‘ARM’ processors that have exactly zero physically existing machine instructions in common.) [Dis]claimer: I have no long or short in AAPL. Anyone posting or voting in this thread should similarly disclose.
- fulldecent2 6y agoI think mentioning Linux in a VM is their way of telling you that Microsoft Windows will no longer be supported on the new hardware.
- ac29 6y agoSeems more likely an acknowledgement that Windows 10 with WSL2 is a threat to their developer market share.
- enos_feedler 6y agoNo, the custom silicon matters more. They've spent years building infrastructure to make it easy to change late stage code generation to multiple ISAs.