Re:ARM-Ed Mac: We Have an Answer
by lddhtx on Sunday March 22, 2020 @10:44PM
(#22660792)
Call me crazy but my bet is that Apple will eventually do an iPadOS to macOS transition, kind of like they did with iOS to iPadOS in 2019. The existing macOS would be scrapped for the iPadOS fork of macOS. This would simplify their operating systems into one “Apple OS” where individual features/layouts can be configured based on the host device. MacOS would still look like Mac UI and iPadOS would still look like iPad UI. This would make easy for developers to make a single app for all of Apple platforms and would allow Apple to release more uniform OS updates. As for the x86 to ARM transition, I’ll bet they make developers rewrite their apps for this new platform, kind of how they dumped support for 32-bit apps in Catalina. If it’s a Catalyst app, then it will automatically run on ARM and x86. Others will be left in the dust.
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Re:ARM-Ed Mac: We Have an Answer
by _anastasia on Monday March 23, 2020 @12:11AM
(#22661197)
Apple has consistently been dumming down their products[0] for the past few years (decades?), in the name of ostensible usability and looks. If they continue along this trend, given that iPadOS is generally more dummed down than macOS, the former will eventually replace the latter.
As for having a single appleOS, we're talking about the company that owns (1) watchOS, (2) iOS, (3) iPadOS, (4) macOS, and (5) tvOS - I believe that's more than Microsoft and Google combined.
[0] They're slowly making everything more touchpad-centred and graphics-oriented, for example.
iOS was already forked from Mac OS X though.