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A concern in my University department is that some of the FOSS/small scale software we teach on won't work on our students' shiny new M1 Macs. Should we be worr

by nanna 6y ago

A concern in my University department is that some of the FOSS/small scale software we teach on won't work on our students' shiny new M1 Macs. Should we be worried?

alberth 6y ago
I'd say the bigger concern is long term, will Apple even ALLOW you to even run non-App store software? E.g. FOSS On iOS they don't. And with this new direction of macOS & ARM, it's not out of the question the same will happen on the desktop. EDIT: why the downvotes? Seriously - what's wrong with what I said ... I'm genuinely curious.
- officeplant 6y ago
  >why the downvotes? Probably because currently MacOS just has a slightly more nagging version of Window's UAC when it comes to unsigned software. Saying that they will disable it holds about the same amount of weight as saying Microsoft will make Windows Win10 S mode only. Is it possible? Maybe, but neither company is going to shoot themselves in the foot like that in the current market.
stu2b50 6y ago
FOSS should be particularly fine, since the code is public, eventually someone will recompile it for ARM (if it's even written in a native language; languages with runtimes will work perfectly fine when the runtime is ported) If not, everything should run through Rosetta 2. Apple did eventually pull the original Rosetta, so who knows how long they will keep the feature, but in the short term I can't imagine it being a problem.
- jdminhbg 6y ago
  > Apple did eventually pull the original Rosetta, so who knows how long they will keep the feature, but in the short term I can't imagine it being a problem. The original Rosetta was only useful for legacy Mac software though; this one will continue to be useful for new x86 software that gets written. I think it will last a lot longer.
  - mindajar 6y ago
    The original Rosetta was also a licensed technology that (presumably) cost Apple a pretty penny. If Rosetta 2 is all in-house tech, that probably bodes well for sticking around longer than the original.

by nanna 6y ago

A concern in my University department is that some of the FOSS/small scale software we teach on won't work on our students' shiny new M1 Macs. Should we be worried?

alberth 6y ago

I'd say the bigger concern is long term, will Apple even ALLOW you to even run non-App store software? E.g. FOSS On iOS they don't. And with this new direction of macOS & ARM, it's not out of the question the same will happen on the desktop. EDIT: why the downvotes? Seriously - what's wrong with what I said ... I'm genuinely curious.

officeplant 6y ago
>why the downvotes? Probably because currently MacOS just has a slightly more nagging version of Window's UAC when it comes to unsigned software. Saying that they will disable it holds about the same amount of weight as saying Microsoft will make Windows Win10 S mode only. Is it possible? Maybe, but neither company is going to shoot themselves in the foot like that in the current market.

stu2b50 6y ago

FOSS should be particularly fine, since the code is public, eventually someone will recompile it for ARM (if it's even written in a native language; languages with runtimes will work perfectly fine when the runtime is ported) If not, everything should run through Rosetta 2. Apple did eventually pull the original Rosetta, so who knows how long they will keep the feature, but in the short term I can't imagine it being a problem.

jdminhbg 6y ago
> Apple did eventually pull the original Rosetta, so who knows how long they will keep the feature, but in the short term I can't imagine it being a problem. The original Rosetta was only useful for legacy Mac software though; this one will continue to be useful for new x86 software that gets written. I think it will last a lot longer.
- mindajar 6y ago
  The original Rosetta was also a licensed technology that (presumably) cost Apple a pretty penny. If Rosetta 2 is all in-house tech, that probably bodes well for sticking around longer than the original.