3 ms·

I think the longer Rosetta exists and macOS thereby supports a wider variety of binary executables, the more people will rely on it to deliver them day-to-day f

I think the longer Rosetta exists and macOS thereby supports a wider variety of binary executables, the more people will rely on it to deliver them day-to-day functionality in increasingly complex configurations, and the more Apple will expose itself to those users' criticisms. If Apple's rationale for the transition is to gain further control over their product design and manufacture, the prospect of having to appease folks who won't give up their old software (like me!) but who come to expect indefinite Rosetta-type backwards compatibility doesn't sound all that appealing from Apple's perspective. We're talking about a company who denied Carbon support in the 64-bit transition while some of their largest software developers still clung to it. Furthermore, the old software they're temporarily supporting through Rosetta represents the agreements and policies Apple followed with third party developers during earlier periods in their history, which I'm sure they want to get away from. In their eyes, the sooner they can ditch those policies and impose iOS-type restrictions on any and all macOS software development, the better. This is probably my last Mac, after thirty years. It's been fun, watching them rise in power, but they've had to become a very different kind of company to get to where they are.

burlesona 6y ago
Your first two paragraphs track, but I think the second two are quite a leap. Sure it’s possible, but I think it’s exceptionally unlikely that Apple will try to lock down the Mac the way the iPhone is. The reason is they think of them as fundamentally different products with fundamentally different purposes, and for the most part the trend line has been moving to more opening of the iOS ecosystem rather than more lockdown of the Mac. (For instance in the last few iOS releases they’ve added file system support, removing the default apps, and in this new release they’re allowing users to set alternative default apps, etc.) Apple views the iPhone as a pure consumer device where the most important thing is that everything “just works.” It’s locked down in the same way a video game console is locked down, and for the same reasons: they gain a lot of “just works” benefits from keeping things very standardized. And most consumers LIKE that. Most consumers hate that their PC (or even Mac) often fails them in “mysterious” ways that require tech support or just living with a broken experience. Apple talks about iOS as a “car” and Mac as a “truck.” They see Mac as their development platform, and literally called that out in their keynote. There is certainly a desire on Apple’s part to make the Mac also an excellent consumer product, hence things like the existence of the App Store and app signing, but on the Mac there have always been “escape hatches” for those who know what they’re doing. Now, the part that Apple does want to lock down and is able to lock down even more with this move is the Hardware. They’ve never made Hackintosh easy and have never done anything to indicate support for tinkering with their hardware, to the point that when the pro community began to bail they brought back a highly “configurable” Mac Pro (configurable with official parts but not really tinkerable). But anyway, I don’t think Mac OS is going to get locked down substantially more than it already is. It’s a nice OS with some trade offs, if those trade offs have worked for you in the past they’re likely to keep being fine, and if not then you probably wouldn’t be a Mac user anyway.
- LeoNatan25 6y ago
  It’s already happening. macOS Bug Sur (Apple’s wording) enforces a read only system partition, which cannot be easily disabled or mounted as rw.
  - ArgyleSound 6y ago
    Can you not go into recovery mode and turn off all the system integrity features like you always could?
    - saagarjha 6y ago
      There is no way to boot a with a R/W system partition anymore, nor can you mount it as such. You must reboot, make changes while in recovery, commit them, and then restart again.
    - briandear 6y ago
      Yes.
      - LeoNatan25 6y ago
        No.

burlesona 6y ago

Your first two paragraphs track, but I think the second two are quite a leap. Sure it’s possible, but I think it’s exceptionally unlikely that Apple will try to lock down the Mac the way the iPhone is. The reason is they think of them as fundamentally different products with fundamentally different purposes, and for the most part the trend line has been moving to more opening of the iOS ecosystem rather than more lockdown of the Mac. (For instance in the last few iOS releases they’ve added file system support, removing the default apps, and in this new release they’re allowing users to set alternative default apps, etc.) Apple views the iPhone as a pure consumer device where the most important thing is that everything “just works.” It’s locked down in the same way a video game console is locked down, and for the same reasons: they gain a lot of “just works” benefits from keeping things very standardized. And most consumers LIKE that. Most consumers hate that their PC (or even Mac) often fails them in “mysterious” ways that require tech support or just living with a broken experience. Apple talks about iOS as a “car” and Mac as a “truck.” They see Mac as their development platform, and literally called that out in their keynote. There is certainly a desire on Apple’s part to make the Mac also an excellent consumer product, hence things like the existence of the App Store and app signing, but on the Mac there have always been “escape hatches” for those who know what they’re doing. Now, the part that Apple does want to lock down and is able to lock down even more with this move is the Hardware. They’ve never made Hackintosh easy and have never done anything to indicate support for tinkering with their hardware, to the point that when the pro community began to bail they brought back a highly “configurable” Mac Pro (configurable with official parts but not really tinkerable). But anyway, I don’t think Mac OS is going to get locked down substantially more than it already is. It’s a nice OS with some trade offs, if those trade offs have worked for you in the past they’re likely to keep being fine, and if not then you probably wouldn’t be a Mac user anyway.

LeoNatan25 6y ago
It’s already happening. macOS Bug Sur (Apple’s wording) enforces a read only system partition, which cannot be easily disabled or mounted as rw.
- ArgyleSound 6y ago
  Can you not go into recovery mode and turn off all the system integrity features like you always could?
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    There is no way to boot a with a R/W system partition anymore, nor can you mount it as such. You must reboot, make changes while in recovery, commit them, and then restart again.
  - briandear 6y ago
    Yes.
    - LeoNatan25 6y ago
      No.