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IMO Microsoft has put much more effort into a thoughtful x86 -> ARM transition than Apple did. For one thing, a lot of code on Windows uses the .Net runtime an

by pavlov 5y ago

IMO Microsoft has put much more effort into a thoughtful x86 -> ARM transition than Apple did. For one thing, a lot of code on Windows uses the .Net runtime and is JIT-compiled to the target platform. Those programs in general don't need to be ported at all. For transitioning native x86 programs — and there are a lot of those on Windows, of course — Microsoft created a new ABI that lets you mix ARM and emulated x86 code seamlessly: https://blogs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/2021/06/28/announcing-arm64ec-building-native-and-interoperable-apps-for-windows-11-on-arm/ https://blogs.windows.com/windowsdeveloper/2021/06/28/announ... This is great for something like an audio or video app that uses a lot of third party plugins. The host app can be ported to ARM, but it can still load those x86 plugin binaries. Apple has no solution for this: their Rosetta works on a process level. If you have a Final Cut Pro plugin that hasn't been ported by the developer to ARM, your only option is to run all of FCP in Rosetta emulation.

my123 5y ago
> your only option is to run all of FCP in Rosetta emulation. Apple has out of process plugins nowadays for that use case, through the XPC infrastructure. It's more 3rd-party SW that doesn't use XPC out of process plugins that are affected.
- pavlov 5y ago
  Yes, good point. Let's replace FCP with After Effects, which is a popular plugin host and doesn't use XPC (AFAIK). Rearchitecting native plugins to run out of process is a lot of work, and isn't something Adobe can quickly mandate on their developers.
GeekyBear 5y ago
> IMO Microsoft has put much more effort into a thoughtful x86 -> ARM transition than Apple did. Given that the Surface Pro X didn't support 64 bit x86 Windows applications at all, I'm not sure how you can think so. Even after developer channel support was added, it was unlikely to work. >How did Microsoft screw this up? - Surface Pro X (SQ2) vs M1 Macbook Air https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhESSZIXvCA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhESSZIXvCA

by pavlov 5y ago

my123 5y ago

> your only option is to run all of FCP in Rosetta emulation. Apple has out of process plugins nowadays for that use case, through the XPC infrastructure. It's more 3rd-party SW that doesn't use XPC out of process plugins that are affected.

pavlov 5y ago
Yes, good point. Let's replace FCP with After Effects, which is a popular plugin host and doesn't use XPC (AFAIK). Rearchitecting native plugins to run out of process is a lot of work, and isn't something Adobe can quickly mandate on their developers.

GeekyBear 5y ago

> IMO Microsoft has put much more effort into a thoughtful x86 -> ARM transition than Apple did. Given that the Surface Pro X didn't support 64 bit x86 Windows applications at all, I'm not sure how you can think so. Even after developer channel support was added, it was unlikely to work. >How did Microsoft screw this up? - Surface Pro X (SQ2) vs M1 Macbook Air https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhESSZIXvCA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhESSZIXvCA