For those who have been using Catalina, is it going to be the 64-bit only macOS?

[Irishman]

everyone knows that Apple is on this developmental roadmap to make macOS 64-bit. I think that we all have been getting the same pop-ups warning that the 64-bit transition is coming and it all sounds very ominous to non-developers like me.

I'm not too keen on having my 32-bit apps stop working because of whatever number of reasons. With all that said, is there any indication that Catalina is going to be that version, from those who have been using the beta?

 

[fisherking]

catalina IS that version.

 

[Irishman]

catalina IS that version.

Thank you, fisherking. I will be skipping the day-one upgrade that I usually do, until there is some kind of resolution on my question of if and when the apps I'm concerned about get made into 64-bit versions.

 

[kis]

It’s more of an issue of kernel extensions no longer working. That can render your expensive hardware useless if the developers don’t release a 64gb version

 

[NoBoMac]

What @fisherking said.

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/06/05/mojave-last-macos-release-to-support-32-bit-apps/

 

[zorinlynx]

Thank you, fisherking. I will be skipping the day-one upgrade that I usually do, until there is some kind of resolution on my question of if and when the apps I'm concerned about get made into 64-bit versions.

You'll be fine skipping day-one, month-one, and even year-one upgrades.

Apple is likely going to support Mojave with security updates for a while because a lot of people can't upgrade due to app compatibility.

 

[haralds]

It’s more of an issue of kernel extensions no longer working. That can render your expensive hardware useless if the developers don’t release a 64gb version

Kernel Extensions have been 64bit since Mountain Lion.
[doublepost=1559752510][/doublepost]All Frameworks and libraries have been "thinned" to 64 bit only. There is no way to run an app in 32 bit mode.

 

[Jyby]

Science Rules!

 

[ASentientBot]

And Kernel Extensions are not going away until after Catalina

Going away? Kernel extensions are hardware drivers, they are an essential part of the OS. I can't see them ever being removed, although it's possible that many will be rewritten with DriverKit over time.

 

[Howard2k]

Click on the Apple logo in the top left corner, then About This Mac, then the System Report, and look for Software>Legacy Software. You can then get a good idea of the scope of the issue.

 

[Jyby]

Science Rules!

 

[mzs.112000]

Sorry I was referring to Kexts... Kexts are going away... Replaced with System Extensions and Driver Kit

Kexts are going away? Why?
Was this mentioned in WWDC?

Kexts were(and still are), light-years more advanced than anything Windows or Linux has to offer as far as drivers and system modification go. Why would they get rid of them?

 

[Jyby]

Science Rules!

 

[mzs.112000]

Yes announced at WWDC in one of the sessions. https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2019/702/

They are being replaced with user space extensions that are sandboxed...

So, they can do anything kexts can do...
How does this affect Hackintoshes?

 

[KALLT]

Apple didn’t say that kernel extensions (kexts) are going away. Those kexts that can be replicated with DriverKit and other new frameworks (about 75% of kexts according to Apple) won’t work anymore in future releases of macOS. Implicitly, the rest should still be available.

 

[Jyby]

Science Rules!

 

[KALLT]

Yeah thats basically saying Kexts are going away... And if you read my previous posts Kexts are going away after Catalina.
And they said they are going away during the session if you paid attention.

No, they are saying that some kexts are going away. They even say that in the future “more” kexts will be deprecated. They don’t say outright that all of them or the functionality itself will be removed at some point.

 

[Jyby]

Science Rules!

 

[kis]

Kernel Extensions have been 64bit since Mountain Lion.
[doublepost=1559752510][/doublepost]All Frameworks and libraries have been "thinned" to 64 bit only. There is no way to run an app in 32 bit mode.

Well, my Mac complained when I installed my Elgato thunderbolt dock’s driver - but I’m not sure which component of it caused the alert

 

[Superhai]

Yeah they did- in the summary System Extensions will replace Kexts. Dude watch the session again. I even asked them about it.

It will take years before Apple will be able to put all kernel extensions into userland. For now system extensions (it surely is a missed opportunity to not abbreviate them sext ) will only be used for USB and network. Both which are easy to abstract into user space interfaces to the kernel. I doubt we will see for example display drivers in userland this year, if ever.

For Hackintoshes this should not affect them much, on the other hand it will be easier to develop drivers for more exotic peripherals as they will not require the kext-signing-cerificate which only Apple hand out extremely sparingly. Just your ordinary developer cert is necessary.