WWDC 20: Mac Goes ARM

Ohh… the application page is back, and accepting applications.

Got mine submitted.

It won’t be a problem for developers. MacOS and iOS developers are of course covered, and web tech developers are abstracted from the CPU anyway. You’re running ruby, python, angular, go, whatever.

Of course MacOS is not actually Linux, but you can just run Linux in a VM and put docker or k8s or whatever on there. You can even run Linux on ARM so there’s no need to translate anything into x86-64 because again, web dev is abstracted from the CPU. And if you want everybody to develop on the exact same containers as used in production with the same binaries then you just run a Linux x86-64 VM and it’s a bit slower.

Running Docker in a VM is what made Windows a second-class platform for that particular kind of development. “VM it” is a solution, yes. It’s also far from being an optimal one.

I guess we wait and see, but all this feels like a big mistake to me, at least for the time being. I could be wrong, of course. It wouldn’t be the first time.

This is true generally but in reality it tends to be a total cluster with unsupported packages of lots of things.

I couldn’t give the Keynote the attention I usually do. I am assuming the SoU will give more technical details like Boot Camp, etc.

This was a weird thing. I am so used to the stage presentation that having Craig staring right into my eyes from a 4k 65" display was a little weird. Also, surprised they still had teleprompters.

On a technical note, I liked what I saw off the Mac stuff. I was hoping this year they would take another try at the iCloud Drive stuff.

Isn’t Docker for Mac already running in a VM anyway?

I am also going to put 10-bucks on the new Macs will have touch screens.

I think it is, but being the same architecture (Intel) does provide a lot of virtualization boosts (on the processor itself) that virtualizing a different architecture won’t have.

Anyway, I have no horses in this race. I just think it’s an odd choice, but I’m sure Apple have their reasons. Time will tell if this was the right move or not.

It would also be just freaking SWELL if the Apple podcast app can sync position across devices. It still can’t can it?

Yes, docker on MacOS runs in a vagrant VM and that is very common. Architecture is just a performance issue there.

WTF are you still using the Apple podcast app for?

I’m not. I use Overcasts and there is zero chance now Marco will make a Catalyst app for Overcast. With the lockdown, I want to listen on my Mac more these days.

Pocket Casts then?

I just use AirFoil to stream Overcast to iMac, not ideal, but I works well enough.

Yeah. I use a bridge-app too, but not thrilled with it.

It sure looked like they focused on touch-friendly controls.

One thing many sites missed-- Mac OS X is dead. The next version of MacOS is 11.

Yeah, pretty cool.

I’m looking forward to seeing benchmarks. A super thin 13" Macbook Air with 16-hour battery life and built-in 5G that can outperform every ultrabook out there, and run every iOS app natively, could be interesting.

Still curious if you can put a discrete GPU in these machines.

I also keep hoping this is the year Photos gets Smart Albums. Ooh well, there is always next year.