I just got a M3 Max and I can’t use it

[-BigMac-]

The name of the software doesn’t matter. People wouldn’t know it anyway.

You started a thread saying you are having software issues, but won’t identify the software name when users who are trying to help you, ask for it.

Why not stop wasting peoples time?

What do you want from people? Clearly not help..pity for your situation?

 

[BrianBaughn]

You started a thread saying you are having software issues, but won’t identify the software name when users who are trying to help you, ask for it.

Why not stop wasting peoples time?

What do you want from people? Clearly not help..pity for your situation?

It's not so much him wasting our time as it is us wasting our own time. The OP has only responded a few times (12 out of 105 posts so far) and has provided enough info for us. I think the OP has enough info from us to make a decision…despite all the bad advice (remote to a computer with no internet?).

There's nothing wrong with carrying more than one kind of wrench on your vehicle when making field visits. Ask a plumber.

 

[bigjnyc]

If this is your livelihood the answer is to buy a highly spec'd windows machine to be used for work, and keep your intel MBP for personal use since you won't be needing all the power of an M3 Max.

 

[masotime]

There are no alternatives to this software and probably less than 500 people in the world use it and the developers will not update it. They haven’t made any changes since 2015.

The data that this one program uses is getting bigger and bigger with time

Some advice - these are massive red flags. The software sounds carelessly written and poorly designed, and is unable to scale to the increasing size of the dataset. I would start looking for a new job, this is going to blow up at some point in the near future when the software buckles under pressure.

 

[masotime]

It seems my options are either stick with my old 2019 MBP or switch over to a windows laptop.

There’s also the third option of getting a new job. I’m not being facetious, I would seriously consider that option if I were in that situation.

 

[BrianBaughn]

My advice to the OP would be to stop following this thread. I just did.

 

[ipaqrat]

Small companies who sell their own proprietary, vertically integrated "Killer App" solutions, inevitably turn into customer-abusing, money-grubbing, prima-dona scumbags. And medium and large company, too.

Furthermore, the OP said the problem this time was software, but that the company's primary line-of-business is process instrumentation (OP also indicated in posts years past, oil field engineering). This makes sense. The software was probably a home-brewed afterthought, maybe never intended to be a saleable product, per se, but profitable considering they didn't intend to invest in it's ongoing R&D. It's not too hard to imagine the company's executives (if they understand the market they're facing these days) sweating bullets every time a feature request comes in, because the Ex-VP's 12 year old nephew, who wrote the software 25 years years ago grew up to work for Greenpeace. Or Apple 😆, or something...

OP might even be under an actual NDA 😖. Doesn't matter if such NDAs are enforceable or not. In tight-knit industries, you can get black-listed in an instant. There's no sense fighting it, once word gets out that you're stirring **it. 100 foot high oil platforms can be so very slippery.

Anyway, stop hatin' on the OP's circumstances and focus on the problem. Haters go show yall'z therapists on the doll where the bad thread hurt you.

 

[bnumerick]

Probably a long shot but give CrossOver a try.

 

[Dble07]

Do you pull a trailer with your work truck or do you just have the truck? Do you have a camper shell on the bed?

 

[Ifti]

Windows desktop stored at work, with said software installed and running.

Use AnyDesk or Teamviewer to remote to the Windows desktop from your MacBook.
This will work whether you are local or remote.

Issue solved.

 

[masotime]

Furthermore, the OP said the problem this time was software….

Anyway, stop hatin' on the OP's circumstances and focus on the problem.

The problem is the software. Ergo, stop using the software. If you can’t, find a new job. Simple.

 

[JustAnExpat]

Windows desktop stored at work, with said software installed and running.

Use AnyDesk or Teamviewer to remote to the Windows desktop from your MacBook.
This will work whether you are local or remote.

Issue solved.

That will not work because the instrument needs to be hooked up to a laptop, since it's used in the field.

 

[salamanderjuice]

The fact that it needs a dongle and connects to an instrument means drivers. x86 drivers don't work on ARM based systems, macOS or Windows (or Linux). A VM or a tool like Crossover is not going to work.

OP get a PC, if you want texting on your PC it works pretty well with Android phones.

 

[JustAnExpat]

Something I just thought about is IF the only solution is to get a PC, make sure this equipment works with Windows 11. This equipment sounds like it's operating on some type of low level hardware, and Windows 11 *MIGHT BE* too different for the equipment to run. Otherwise, use eBay and find a used Windows 10 machine that meets your needs.

 

[zhenya]

You've got me worried you're talking about our software! Presuming it's probably not (as we've updated many times since 2015) however similar line of business.

I would suggest either sticking with your Intel MBP or biting the bullet and getting a really nice PC laptop for this specific purpose. I do this - even when I'm in the field if I have the space - data collection and analysis on the PC, the rest of my work on the Mac. It's a bit of a PITA, but you get used to it.

 

[canadianreader]

I am using windows 11 ARM. The old software is not compatible. I get windows 11 arm working fine on both fusion and parallels but this program will not even open.

The program is very processor intensive. It also takes a lot of ram. It is doing finite element analysis on large data sets. I have seen it run on fast windows desktops.

The name of the software doesn’t matter. People wouldn’t know it anyway. It is specifically made by this one small company and only works with their instruments and has no other purpose. It also isn’t cheap it cost around $12,000. I don’t want to put the name of it because I am highly dependent on the company that makes it for my livelihood and I don’t want them to see this and think I am bad mouthing their product or something.

Try this instead

CrossOver on Mac: Run x86 Windows Apps On M1 Macs | Mac Expert Guide

Although the new Macs do not support Windows via BootCamp, it is possible that x86 Windows Apps will run on Apple M1 Macs via CrossOver.

macexpertguide.com

 

[salamanderjuice]

Try this instead

CrossOver on Mac: Run x86 Windows Apps On M1 Macs | Mac Expert Guide

Although the new Macs do not support Windows via BootCamp, it is possible that x86 Windows Apps will run on Apple M1 Macs via CrossOver.

macexpertguide.com

Crossover won't work because of drivers.

 

[canadianreader]

Crossover won't work because of drivers.

Do you mean graphics drivers ? or 32bits apps not supported ?

 

[salamanderjuice]

Do you mean graphics drivers ? or 32bits apps not supported ?

No, the drivers for the dongle and the hardware instrument they need to run.

 

[Donoban]

I am not sure if this is the right place for this or not but I am really bummed out. I have been using a 2019 MBP that I bought new and it has been great. There is some really niche proprietary software that I use daily for my work that only runs on windows. There are no alternatives to this software and probably less than 500 people in the world use it and the developers will not update it. They haven’t made any changes since 2015.

Anyway I have used this software on my 2019 MBP with windows running on fusion and it works great and has for years. I got my new M3 Max and this software will not run on it. I tried parallels and fusion and it will not work.

I am so disappointed and am at a loss on what to do. I have been using Mac since 2012 for everything except for a couple windows only programs. The data that this one program uses is getting bigger and bigger with time and I really need a newer faster computer but I think I already have the fastest intel MBP.

It seems my options are either stick with my old 2019 MBP or switch over to a windows laptop. I am not all excited about that. I use this one program 30-40 hours a week and am constantly copying and pasting info to and from it. I do everything aside from this program on the Mac side.

Someone prob suggested this but you could pay for a Windows VM hosted in the cloud somewhere. Micrsoft have some offerings but are towards the more expensive options.

 

[prog99]

That's not true. You can run x86 Mac apps on Arm transparently. You can run x86 Windows apps on Arm using some form of Wine, such as CrossOver. Even 32-bit Windows apps.

OP: CrossOver has a free trial. Typically Wine has less compatibility than virtualization, but given that you can set it to emulate older versions of Windows, maybe that's what it needs in this case, and you never know until you try.

Wine is great. I have one bit of windows software (that does have a very inferior Mac version) that I run daily and flawlessly on an m2 mba.
It’s definitely worth the op giving it a try.

 

[Fishrrman]

The "right tool" for the job-at-hand, is what is needed.

Sometimes, "the job" just calls for a PC.
And there's no way around that.

Looks like you need a good PC for work.
Keep the Mac for "home and personal".

I reckon the OP has been scared off.
Maybe he's already shopping for that windows laptop...

 

[Kingcoherent]

How would you be 'bad mouthing' the company for looking into alternatives to run it on a Mac? That's just absurd.

I'm not sure why the software won't run in ARM Windows, that does seem strange. I too rely on some niche Windows x86 only software for my work (Sage Payroll) and I run it just fine in Parallels running Windows for ARM. I can't remember but there might be something you need to do for your Windows for ARM installations to enable x86 emulation, it's been a while since I set mine up.

Another alternative is to look into something like a Wine wrapper. Have a try with Whiskey (https://getwhisky.app/). It's designed for game porting as it uses Apple's new Game Porting Toolkit that's part of Sonoma. Maybe this might work for this app. Everything's worth a try!

If that doesn't work, there are ways to emulate Windows x86 on Macs but they're obviously slower e.g. QEMU.

If none of these options are working then you might need to look at some additional hardware. You could potentially get a super compact Windows laptop (or headless computer) and take it with you, connecting to it via remote desktop software. I have something like this setup for our office as we require an ID badge printing software that's Windows only. I have an Intel Mac Mini that runs VMWare Fusion which has a Windows 10 virtual machine running just this software. Doesn't have to be a Mac Mini, of course, but I like to be able to Screen Share to the main machine to manage the VM but it's set up so that anyone in the office can access the virtual machine through a VNC web based client. The ID badge printing software is designed to run on one PC but we wanted anyone in the office to be able to use it, which is why I came up with this workaround.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

Agree. It certainly isn't "bad mouthing" a company to ask them to produce a Mac version (or Windows +ARM). If there are features missing from their software that mean you need to use other software, and the rest of your workflow is Mac based... then it is entirely reasonable to request a Mac (or Arm) version.

TBH if a supplier is charging you 12K for a software license and has you this scared, you should be looking for a new supplier who treats you like a partner to work with rather than someone to exploit.

 

[JustAnExpat]

The "right tool" for the job-at-hand, is what is needed.

Sometimes, "the job" just calls for a PC.
And there's no way around that.

Looks like you need a good PC for work.
Keep the Mac for "home and personal".

I reckon the OP has been scared off.
Maybe he's already shopping for that windows laptop...

But make sure it's the RIGHT PC. Knowing these devices that's used in the Oil and Gas industry, they can be very picky about the operating system used. The computer must be viewed as a controller, and not as a traditional computer that can be used for a variety of different tasks :O

 

[JustAnExpat]

TBH if a supplier is charging you 12K for a software license and has you this scared, you should be looking for a new supplier who treats you like a partner to work with rather than someone to exploit.

I know for the surveying industry (and I'm sure this is true in the Oil and Gas industry as well) there are some very niche players, and there's only one vendor who makes a specific type of tool, or if there are a few vendors, they all basically have the same requirements for the operating system.

Making a MacOS version of a software program can be hard work, and something a business would not want to do unless they are absolutely sure they can make a profit off of it.