It was certainly a good move for hardware but a shame that they used it to block a choice of operating system. I’d buy a MacBook in a heartbeat if it wasn’t hamstrung with MacOS. If I wanted to remember complex command strings I’d still be using DOS!
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Intel to Apple Silicon Transition for Mac Was Announced Five Years Ago
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Sort of. You could run the developer version of WinARM with an existing x86 license in Parallels pretty soon after the M1 came out.
Sure, but Apple now has much greater control over the development prcess and can focus on making chips that meet their goals vs being tied to Intel or AMD's roadmap.
I never really got the value of dual booting, having run VMs since the days of VirtualPC (a very painful experience back then). For me, the ability to seamlessly transition from Win to MacOS and share the same files mave a VM much better than dual booting, even with somewhat less performance. My Win needs centers around testing for Office compatibility and browser compatibility, so I never really have performance issues. I did at one time have a Win laptop lent to me by a client and when I ran GeekBench the Win scores were well within any margin of error between Parallels and the PC native version. Of course, YMMV.
I'm curious, what do you find more useful with a dual boot?
Probably more like they don't because the market would be so small they have decided to focus their resources elsewhere with a better ROI.
Apple's ARM licensing fee is reported to be less than 30 cents/chip because of a long term agreement with ARM and their being one of the original founders of ARM along with Acorn and VSLI. The Newton presaged Apple's switch to the ARM for its machines.
you missed 6502 before that ...You missed 68k->PowerPC
It was a great move in many ways for the pure Apple user.
However for those of us that also ran bootcamp or VM’s (Windows/Linux) for work or gaming it killed the Mac for us. I get my Macbooks through work and I used to only use a high end models so I could run VM’s for work. The ARM based VM’s i can run now simply do not cut it. My Macbooks are now my remote only computer as i Have not found a good Windows laptop. At home and work I use powerful Windowws PC’s to get done what i need.
However for those of us that also ran bootcamp or VM’s (Windows/Linux) for work or gaming it killed the Mac for us. I get my Macbooks through work and I used to only use a high end models so I could run VM’s for work. The ARM based VM’s i can run now simply do not cut it. My Macbooks are now my remote only computer as i Have not found a good Windows laptop. At home and work I use powerful Windowws PC’s to get done what i need.
I remember the transition to PowerPC, and then the transition to Intel, and when I heard the announcement about Apple Silicon I thought: (a) not again! (b) what an unspectacular name.
But by then we were deep into that period where Apple was busily running the Mac aground with a slew of bad decisions all across the product line. So it was a blessing in disguise.
I’ve been running Mac minis since about 2010, so I was pretty excited at first, but — remembering the other transitions — I wanted to wait until most of the software was native. And almost immediately the rumors started about how the *next* Apple Silicon mini was just around the corner. And then Apple never put the M1 Pro into a headless desktop machine, so I waited until the M2 Pro mini, which is what I’m typing this on now.
In 2017, when it looked like it would be half a decade before Apple made another laptop worth buying, and they were still selling that one lone pre-butterfly 2015 model, one with actual ports and MagSafe, I bought it, and that ended up being a very lucky thing to have done. That machine got me through to a few months ago, when I finally upgraded. I’ve splurged on a 14-inch M2 Pro MacBook Pro — and, given a decade's difference in bezel size, it’s the same size screen as a 2015 15” model.
Now Apple is giving signals about sunsetting Rosetta II, and I think I’ve only got two applications left that might be affected.
But by then we were deep into that period where Apple was busily running the Mac aground with a slew of bad decisions all across the product line. So it was a blessing in disguise.
I’ve been running Mac minis since about 2010, so I was pretty excited at first, but — remembering the other transitions — I wanted to wait until most of the software was native. And almost immediately the rumors started about how the *next* Apple Silicon mini was just around the corner. And then Apple never put the M1 Pro into a headless desktop machine, so I waited until the M2 Pro mini, which is what I’m typing this on now.
In 2017, when it looked like it would be half a decade before Apple made another laptop worth buying, and they were still selling that one lone pre-butterfly 2015 model, one with actual ports and MagSafe, I bought it, and that ended up being a very lucky thing to have done. That machine got me through to a few months ago, when I finally upgraded. I’ve splurged on a 14-inch M2 Pro MacBook Pro — and, given a decade's difference in bezel size, it’s the same size screen as a 2015 15” model.
Now Apple is giving signals about sunsetting Rosetta II, and I think I’ve only got two applications left that might be affected.
What they lost in people wanting to use one computer with two operating systems they gained in customer growth. That is, the net effect was an increase in their user base, not a decrease.
Bought an M1 Air upon release and it remains the newest computer in the house. Still more than enough for the daily tasks it has. The portable Intel Macs which preceded it were not great in hindsight.
At the moment, there is no way to boot Windows at all using Apple’s ARM Mac bootloader. Perhaps this is something Microsoft can add support for in Windows.
But even if it did boot and install (at minimum), there would be no drivers for anything. Apple would have to supply drivers for everything, else the machine would be practically useless.
One thing Cook doesn't do is bringing flops to market, unlike the previous CEO. Apple III, Lisa, PowerMac G4 Cube, Apple HiFi, Macintosh TV, Apple Sox, 20th Anniversary Mac, Apple iPod Sox, Pippin, Newton, etc.
The goggles are pretty dead, I think we can all agree on that. Not his first flop either
Folks seem to easily forget this when bashing Apple for not innovating anymore. This was a monumental task and Apple knocked it out of the park.
I knew Apple was going to make the transition when the A12 SoC was already showing performance that was only a small fraction behind that of the Intel and AMD CPU's of 2018 vintage. The M1 benefited from the fact it was closely coupled with MacOS, so when it rolled out in the fall of 2020 the performance surprised a lot of people with its impressive speed.
Apple isn’t interested in market share, they are interested in profit share. If they are taking the top of the PC market, that’s all they care about.
The M-move hype has long fizzled - the performance boost of later M chips is minuscule at best, integrated memory is far from sufficient, and graphics performance continues to be worse than in top GPUs.
Effective Windows virtualization or BootCamp? Forget it.
Not everyone is a “creative artist”, and not everyone feels this “huge” advantage in using M-chip Macs - I have both and my 2019 Mac Pro continues to be the main machine by far.
Effective Windows virtualization or BootCamp? Forget it.
Not everyone is a “creative artist”, and not everyone feels this “huge” advantage in using M-chip Macs - I have both and my 2019 Mac Pro continues to be the main machine by far.
If you are still running an Intel Mac laptop, you are doing it wrong. When I upgraded my Intel Air for a M1 MacBook Air, WOW, not only the performance improvement, but the biggest difference was how cool the M1 ran. The Intel would get hot just browsing the internet. The M1, I have to be doing video encoding for it to even get warm. To me, that is the biggest difference. I bought an M4 16GB/512GB Air open box at Best Buy for $930 a couple weeks ago, and am still typing on the M1 and haven't even transferred over yet. This is truly an incredible machine. Only upgraded because I'm passing this one down to a family member. 4-1/2 year old laptop still running strong.
Totally wrong and they have to focus on those. Take a look at AI competition that they are way behind than anyone else. That's because they cant even make server or super computer grade chips for their own. Since Apple is refusing to use Nvidia GPU, it only means they sucks. That's why Apple needs to create Mac Pro chips so that they can use it for their own server and AI development. According to people who blamed CFO, they are still using 5 years old GPU and they even reduced the amount of budget to buy more GPU.
Also, there are still many demands for high end and workstation computer that Apple ditched.
I'd also be curious to know this! I know whenever something new comes out, websites crop up that catalogue this (like Intel back in the day, and Apple Silicon at first), but I wonder if any is currently maintained.
Thanks, but that's more of a visual bandaid and doesn't address this mess:
This topic has been beaten to death, but it's a kludge and I'm looking forward to the day they can engineer their way out of it.
One of the best Macs in history, IMO. I've also upgraded to an M4, but like you it was not so much a necessity as a "nice to have" for the extra speed and somehow even better battery life.