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On the topic of platform switches, I thought Apple handled the ARM switch very well! I was initially hesitant when my current employer handed me an M1 MacBook

On the topic of platform switches, I thought Apple handled the ARM switch very well! I was initially hesitant when my current employer handed me an M1 MacBook for software development (typical web and tools dev). I wanted to request for a last gen Intel Mac instead. 6 months later I realized that I haven’t yet had any major issues with doing web development, or using most tools. Rosetta 2 handles most x86-64 software well with a little startup delay, and the list of native ARM software is still growing. The initial 2 months were painful only because the existing developers and tools were all x86-64 and no one else had an M1 Mac. There was no formal IT team and so I don’t think they thought about platform compatibility etc. I had to look for alternatives, workarounds, compile from source, but this phase went better and lasted shorter than I expected. Combined with the lower cost and higher performance of the M1 platform it’s a no brainer for organizations.

bigiain 5y ago
> I thought Apple handled the ARM switch very well! I wonder how many of the greybeards who worked on the PowerPC -> X86 transition or even the 68k -> PowerPC transition they still had around to help guide that? Does anybody (technical in this sort of way) stay at Apple for 17 or 30 years respectively?
amelius 5y ago
Meanwhile, Microsoft has maintained backward binary compatibility for ages.
- weiliddat 5y ago
  Is it in the same way? Impressions of the Surface Pro X seem to be less than stellar in terms of compatibility and performance in comparison to the M1 MacBooks. I’ve used Windows PCs for much longer than I’ve had Macs, and I don’t seem to recall Windows going through such a large platform move like OSX did with PowerPC > Intel and then macOS with Intel > ARM.
- asddubs 5y ago
  which ironically really hurt their ARM adoption. Apple devs already know the rules are going to change on them whenever apple feels like it, so people aren't as stubborn about it. Of course I don't think that strategy would have worked for microsoft to begin with
- dilyevsky 5y ago
  Which turned out to be more trouble than it’s worth. Many applications are now on the web and web devs breaks api compatibility all the damn time. Nobody seems to care about it that much

bigiain 5y ago

> I thought Apple handled the ARM switch very well! I wonder how many of the greybeards who worked on the PowerPC -> X86 transition or even the 68k -> PowerPC transition they still had around to help guide that? Does anybody (technical in this sort of way) stay at Apple for 17 or 30 years respectively?

amelius 5y ago

Meanwhile, Microsoft has maintained backward binary compatibility for ages.

weiliddat 5y ago
Is it in the same way? Impressions of the Surface Pro X seem to be less than stellar in terms of compatibility and performance in comparison to the M1 MacBooks. I’ve used Windows PCs for much longer than I’ve had Macs, and I don’t seem to recall Windows going through such a large platform move like OSX did with PowerPC > Intel and then macOS with Intel > ARM.
asddubs 5y ago
which ironically really hurt their ARM adoption. Apple devs already know the rules are going to change on them whenever apple feels like it, so people aren't as stubborn about it. Of course I don't think that strategy would have worked for microsoft to begin with
dilyevsky 5y ago
Which turned out to be more trouble than it’s worth. Many applications are now on the web and web devs breaks api compatibility all the damn time. Nobody seems to care about it that much