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It's an enormous advantage in one specific case, where you have enough non-technical users who would otherwise need to manually choose a binary. That was a big
by wolrah 6y ago
It's an enormous advantage in one specific case, where you have enough non-technical users who would otherwise need to manually choose a binary.
That was a big deal for Apple during their two previous transitions, but not as much these days where as I understand it a significant portion of Mac software distribution happens through the official App Store platform.
We see the same in the Linux world, where fat binary support has been developed and proposed on multiple occasions but has never really caught on because the number of users who don't know their CPU architecture but want to install software from outside their distro's package manager is effectively negligible.
- selectodude 6y agoUniversal Binaries were barely an issue fifteen years ago, either. Sure, they were a bit larger but only the actual compiled code changed. Any assets used were the same and the difference in package size wasn't particularly significant.
- Wowfunhappy 6y ago> as I understand it a significant portion of Mac software distribution happens through the official App Store platform It's not that significant. I'd guess the amount that goes through the app store is almost certainly less than half, and very possibly much less.
- musicale 6y agoIt's an enormous advantage: - to restore your apps onto a new machine using Migration Assistant and have them "just work" at full performance - to have a single app that you can drag and drop install on your old and new hardware - in campus environments to have a single image and archive for all local software