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I am guessing here and hoping some can correct me if i’m wrong: Existing Mac Intel applications need to transitioned to ARM applications and will be either: A)

I am guessing here and hoping some can correct me if i’m wrong: Existing Mac Intel applications need to transitioned to ARM applications and will be either: A) recompiled (buggy) or, B) emulated (slow). My options are: 1) ARM - which will be buggy or slow immediately or, 2) Intel - which will have problems 5-7 years when Intel apps no longer supported... and by that time I’ll be ready for a new computer anyway. So, Option 2) is the way to go??

lunixbochs 6y ago
They are recompiled by Rosetta at install time, leaked benchmarks indicate it’s not slow.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  And to add on, the recompiled code is thrown away when it does sketchy things like JIT or rewriting itself. So it should be able to avoid many of the bugs you might encounter in that area by just emulating complicated bits.
- sfgweilr4f 6y ago
  This puzzles me. Why don't they just recompile the projects to ARM and go with fat binaries? Stop emulating things. It wastes power. Plus the compiler toolchain already exists.
  - NobodyNada 6y ago
    The recommended way to run apps is indeed to recompile to ARM using universal binaries [0]. Rosetta is just to support older apps that have not yet been updated for ARM. [0]: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/building_a_universal_macos_binary https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/building_a_u...
  - acdha 6y ago
    That’s what they announced, and it’s trivial as you’d expect from a company which has at times supported 4 architectures (32/64-bit PowerPC and Intel). Rosetta 2 is for the apps which don’t do that.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
valuearb 6y ago
Apples track record is that the transition will have less problems than people expect. And they've done it twice. And the benchmarks so far indicate that the Rosetta2 apps will be as fast or faster running on Apple Silicon than they were on i86.
- temptemptemp111 6y ago
  Right, but we're in a different age now. It will be harder to cover up the degeneration of culture - and "silicon valley" culture is not exempt.
jefft255 6y ago
Recompiling, unless you're doing some low-level optimization and the like, isn't tricky or bug prone. I expect a lot of apps to be recompiled and smooth after a few months; making sure dependencies are ARM-ready will slow that down a bit.

lunixbochs 6y ago

They are recompiled by Rosetta at install time, leaked benchmarks indicate it’s not slow.

saagarjha 6y ago
And to add on, the recompiled code is thrown away when it does sketchy things like JIT or rewriting itself. So it should be able to avoid many of the bugs you might encounter in that area by just emulating complicated bits.
sfgweilr4f 6y ago
This puzzles me. Why don't they just recompile the projects to ARM and go with fat binaries? Stop emulating things. It wastes power. Plus the compiler toolchain already exists.
- NobodyNada 6y ago
  The recommended way to run apps is indeed to recompile to ARM using universal binaries [0]. Rosetta is just to support older apps that have not yet been updated for ARM. [0]: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/building_a_universal_macos_binary https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/building_a_u...
- acdha 6y ago
  That’s what they announced, and it’s trivial as you’d expect from a company which has at times supported 4 architectures (32/64-bit PowerPC and Intel). Rosetta 2 is for the apps which don’t do that.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

valuearb 6y ago

Apples track record is that the transition will have less problems than people expect. And they've done it twice. And the benchmarks so far indicate that the Rosetta2 apps will be as fast or faster running on Apple Silicon than they were on i86.

temptemptemp111 6y ago
Right, but we're in a different age now. It will be harder to cover up the degeneration of culture - and "silicon valley" culture is not exempt.

jefft255 6y ago

Recompiling, unless you're doing some low-level optimization and the like, isn't tricky or bug prone. I expect a lot of apps to be recompiled and smooth after a few months; making sure dependencies are ARM-ready will slow that down a bit.