Shouldn't the first models to use ARM be desktop? Allow the early adopters to kick the tires. So that devs can make sure their wares work on ARM before the mass market models switch?
Apple to debut multiple ARM MacBook, desktop models in 2021
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Re: Apple to debut multiple ARM MacBook, desktop models in 2021
#52I wonder if they'll use that as an excuse for complete lockdown of macOS and only allow AppStore reviewed software.
They can't do this unless they are okay with never selling machines again to anyone who needs to write code. There's no feasible way for all programming tools to be distributed through MAS. IPython isn't going to suddenly go through the marathon of crap you need to get into the store.
If absolutely nothing else, native developers: you can't have more than one version of a MAS app installed. Nearly every iOS developer I know has at least two versions of Xcode at any given time.
Re: Apple to debut multiple ARM MacBook, desktop models in 2021
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean if it's just about performance, why switch architectures instead of using AMD chips?
Alan Kay: “People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.” Apple: People who are really serious about hardware make their own processors.
Eventually you become Ford and build a River Rouge Plant where you do all of your own metallurgy and parts manufacturing. Completely vertical.
Re: Apple to debut multiple ARM MacBook, desktop models in 2021
#54Always a year away. I remain deeply sceptical that Apple will move the Mac to ARM, and given their bungling of the MacBook lineup over the last 5 years I have doubts they understand what their users need from a laptop. I don't think they could pull it off without a great deal of pain for their users and developers. I don't think their OS engineers need the burden.
Not clear that Apple “bungled” the laptops as their sales have been declining roughly in proportion to the sagging of the overall PC market. In other words the flimsy keyboards may have increased their service costs and pissed of a small part of a key constituency but basically may not have itself risen above the noise floor.
For every person who complains about the laptops there’s someone like me who is happy with the direction (doesn’t make either of us wrong). I’m a software developer and miss the portability of my 12” MacBook. I enable telemetry so they know I almost never plug anything into my machine. An iPad just doesn’t cut it.
If this ARM speculation is even substantive it will likely mean a light super-portable machine for me and continued investment in the 16” MBP for you.
Re: Apple to debut multiple ARM MacBook, desktop models in 2021
#55To be honest, I am super unexcited by this. What I want to see from Apple is a move back to high software quality, high hardware quality and real vision for their products. At the moment their convergence between iPad and Macbook has essentially been to add sub-par versions of macbook features to the iPad and to make the macbook a second class citizen in terms of quality. My big worry is that actually this is just ac…
I owned a surface and I own an iPad Pro now. They aren’t even comparable in usability, Apple is great at refining features and making them work even if Microsoft is better at getting them out earlier. It’s like comparing the iPhone to WinCE.
Re: Apple to debut multiple ARM MacBook, desktop models in 2021
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean if it's just about performance, why switch architectures instead of using AMD chips?
If it's time to make another CPU change, why not switch it to one that you control completely? Motorola->PPC->Intel->Apple. It just makes sense that's where they'd ultimately want to go.
>why not switch it to one that you control completely?
So you don't have to kill all of the software currently running on your customers' machines.
Re: Apple to debut multiple ARM MacBook, desktop models in 2021
#57Always a year away. I remain deeply sceptical that Apple will move the Mac to ARM, and given their bungling of the MacBook lineup over the last 5 years I have doubts they understand what their users need from a laptop. I don't think they could pull it off without a great deal of pain for their users and developers. I don't think their OS engineers need the burden.
They’ll do it on a select model or two. By passing on some of the cost savings to purchasers, they will drag the market along with them as they gradually replace Intel. I would guess that they target the MacBook Air first, because there are likely large power-performance benefits in that form factor. They will build multiple processor targeting into the default build process in Xcode and will invest a great deal of e…
Or the (currently discontinued) MacBook. The evidence (and logic) suggests that Apple is on a path to reconverge their tablet and at least a portion of their laptop line. Which would be interesting to me if the merged device didn't have too many compromises given that I typically travel with an iPad and some sort of laptop (whether MacBook Pro or Chromebook).
Re: Apple to debut multiple ARM MacBook, desktop models in 2021
#58The only reason I could come to care about architecture, as a consumer, is if it provides a freakishly long battery life.
Re: Apple to debut multiple ARM MacBook, desktop models in 2021
#59I am torn, whenever I hear the rumors about the ARM Macs. On the one side, I am terribly excited from a technology perspective. I grew up with homecomputers in the 80ies, and in the 90ies, all Unix-workstations had several different, non-x86 architectures. So any disruption of the x86-monoculture is interesting. Also, looking at the performance of the iPhone and iPad, I think Apple has the potential to create some gr…
I wonder if we could see more mixed architecture like T2. What would it look like if you had x86 and ARM on board?
Re: Apple to debut multiple ARM MacBook, desktop models in 2021
#60I'm curious what Parallels going to do. Running Windows and Linux applications with almost native integration into OSX ecosystem worth a lot, especially with all benefits of hardware virtualization. In theory PC could be virtualized on ARM, however software virtualization only.
Going to watch the process. In general, Windows and Linux support ARM as well, not sure if hardware virtualization for ARM exist though