a topic for discussing Catalina and Apples moved to 64 bit only
Itâs interesting Apple have done this.
All I know is that I can still run Microsoft exes from 30 years ago, and people moan about them. Strange also the people that make the processors keep them backwards compatible!
I guess on apple we went through this in the past but this was to do with processor changes. Iâm wondering if this change is the start of a move to another processor manufacturer?
Itâs very likely Microsoft will also drop 32 bit support , we just donât have a timeline yet.
Ubuntu already announced dropping 32 bit support, though then had to partially back down - but thatâs just a âstay of executionâ
Apple tend to push things along a bit quicker, but they have been prepping us for this change for many years!
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Iâm not sure about Microsoft dropping it, Iâm not sure if is likely. The hardware supports it so why make the OS not?
Microsoft have a huge amount of users running old software on new operating systems and have spent a lot of effort making sure these systems still work. Ubuntu and Apple do not have the same background.
Which us why I guess apple/Ubuntu are not so interested, one makes their money from arm based tablets and phones and will move their computers to the same infrastructure, the other has not got the money for support. Both I guess are not that worried about the past.
Can people who need to run âabandonwareâ from the distant past run them in a VM (running an older OS) that itself runs on a newer 64-bit only OS?
you can theoretically run other versions of macOS under something like vmware.
not sure how viable it is, or what performance would be like.
I guess if there is demand someone like vmware could optimise the experience a bit, like they have with windows and âunityâ (which runs windows apps on same desktop)
frankly, if i was needing to run very old software, id probably just buy an old MacBook pro (which are pretty cheap) and keep that dedicated for the task.
@BobTheDog as i said, we donât have a timeline from Microsoft.
I agree Microsoft do tend to keep backwards compatibility/migration plans for longer than Apple - but like all backwards compatibility its never perfect, Iâve had plenty of windows apps in the past that have become unusable for one reason or another - so ended up ditching for newer alternatives.
hell, even my current 4k laptop has apps that look dreadful (tiny fonts etc) because the apps have not been updated to the new windows api to support HDPI - so you have to force them to do some crummy scaling.
neither route is perfect:
backwards compatibility always keeps a fair amount of âbloatâ in an OS, and can hold back innovation, and is a drain of software dev resources - but is âsaferâ and less disruptive.
but pushing forward, can create plenty of headaches esp. with hardware/drivers but is cleaner, and moving forwards it inevitable at some point. (*)
itâs a compromise that apple/microsoft both try to achieve in their own way.
I do get its a pain though⌠in the âoldâ days, id have just said , donât upgrade. but these days thats not really possible as you are constant under pressure to be on the latest OS , either due to application updates, new hardware (and so driver support) or security upgrades
anyway, i just accept the âpainâ and move on 
(*) most extreme example of this approach is arch linux, which many love - but i found really painful - you try to install one app and then next thing you know your updating the entire OS
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Nothing ever is 
I run lots of different version of OSX here for testing/support in different VMs here under VMWare Fusion.
The main issue is no support for hardware accelerated graphics, this is apparently a restriction enforced by Apple when running in a VM. CPU Performance is good though.
You wouldnât want to run anything that updates the screen too much though.
As a side issue, Iâm not sure if you are looking at the Bela BB AI thread but with a simple NEON test I am seeing huge speed improvements. For intrinsics nearly 10 times performance, normal C nearly 13 times performance!
Plenty of power for Orac
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Yeah BB AI is really good news for Bela, just waiting on Bela sorting out the PRU code.
only caveat is heat dissipation which can be problematic for music applications (fans are bad news) - but like the rPI4, i suspect itâll be ok with heats ink and perhaps some throttling.
From my tests I think you need a fan unless you want to run at 500mhz!
I donât think the fan has to run too fast though, I have a 5V PCM fan here setup but currently the OS is not set up for the hardware PCM and the section is missing in the system reference so it is running at full speed, it stays at around 35C with the fan just blowing between the two boards, for full speed you need to keep it under 65C.
Once they sort out the PCM I will look to see how much air needs to be moved over the heatsink to keep it cool, I think it may not need much.
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