Apple will phase out Rosetta 2 in macOS 28
They barely just released Containerization Framework[0] and the new container[1] tool, and they are already scheduling a kneecapping of this two years down the line.
Realistically, people are still going to be deploying on x64 platforms for a long time, and given that Apple's whole shtick was to serve "professionals", it's really a shame that they're dropping the ball on developers like this. Their new containerization stuff was the best workflow improvement for me in quite a while.
Ah, I guess it was wise for the original developer of Rosetta 2 to quit earlier this year. One of the people that I look up to.
Well this kinda screws me over running docker on macos. Not all images I use have an arm version.
Seems premature. My scanner software, SnapScan, still regularly updated, requires Rosetta. Abbyy FineReaser, the best Mac OCR, requires Rosetta. Although they may be related, as the SnaScan software does OCR with the FineReader engine.
Phasing out Rosetta 2 seems like a reasonable move. Maintaining backward compatibility indefinitely adds complexity and technical debt. Apple has supported Intel-based systems for a long time, and this step aligns with their goal of keeping macOS streamlined for Apple Silicon.
That means Steam will release a native Apple Silicon client circa 2028. Exciting!
This seems to basically only apply to full-fledged GUI apps and excludes e.g. games, so potentially stuff like Rosetta for CLI isn't going anywhere either
For those unfamiliar with Apple’s new version-numbering system, this is the version that will be released in 2027, presumably around September or October of that year.
Hopefully this means macOS 27 will be a Snow Leopard type release to focus on bug fixes, performance, and the overall experience, rather than focusing on new features.
I’ve always been amazed by Rosetta, such an incredible piece of engineering. But I wonder if we’ll ever see its source code opened up.
It feels like keeping it alive could really help long-term x64 support on Apple Silicon, even if Apple decides to move on.
RIP a ton of older audio plugins.
That means the end of the Hackintosh era if the OS won't run x86, I imagine it won't install on x86 either.
By the time this happens, it will have been a 7 year transition. That isn't too bad considering the original Rosetta only got 5.
I do have sympathy for those that still use this in their daily work flow, but also... this is Apple. This is how they have always rolled.
Would be nice if they open sourced Rosetta, so that the community could continue support.
Bring back Rosetta 1.
User mode emulation for PPC and Intel Mac apps.
Running Windows in Parallels. Even when running Windows ARM version, you still need Rosetta to run Windows x86 binaries.
This is very frustrating. As if they couldn't afford to continue it. And at the same time they keep making the system more and more closed, so that you can't even run applications without Apple's permission. I don't understand why people still buy such products.
I guess this is another way of Apple saying x86 is dead. Would have loved if Intel and AMD joined force to open up x86. Instead they are following the same path as POWER, likely doing it when it is too little too late.
Ok, application developers will maybe update by then.
But this is another way for Apple to say "do not trust us for your gaming needs no matter what PR says".
Does this mean end to macOS wine gaming? From what I know you need to be using x86_64 build of wine on macos to run the x86 built windows games.
It will be interesting to see whether they keep optional TSO in their SoCs after Rosetta 2 is no longer working.
Tangentially, this was surprising
The system prevents you from mixing
arm64 code and x86_64 code in the
same process. Rosetta translation
applies to an entire process,
including all code modules that the
process loads dynamically.
I mean, it's literally the same DMG from way back when and there's no chance it doesn't run under Rosetta, but I run Ableton natively!
May be M7 CPU will run qemu emulation of x86 fast enough for Rosetta to not be required.
This is awful. I love playing games on my MBP and the latest crossover releases have been amazing in the ability to play almost all windows PC games at full speed. Losing rosetta means crossover is dead.
You would hope that apple would open source it, but they are one of the worst companies in the world for open sourcing things. Shame on all their engineers.
Hopefully this will finally push Sonos to produce an Apple Silicon binary.
For a few years now it's been feeling like Apple are pushing devs away and are more interested in catering for general consumers. Just look at what DHH has written and said about it, and his move to Omarchy
As is tradition.
Just use linux. You learn it once and it works forever.
I'm guessing they don't want to maintain and build and test x86_64 versions of all the macos libraries like Appkit and UIKit (including large changes like liquid glass) when they are no longer shipping x86_64 macOS versions. Which is not entirely unreasonable as I'm sure it takes a lot of effort to keep the whole ui library stack working properly on multiple archs.
Perhaps that's what they're hinting about with the note about a "subset of Rosetta". So maybe there is hope that the core x86_64 binary translator will stick around for things like VM and emulation of generic (linux? wine?) binaries, but they don't want to maintain a whole x86_64 macOS userspace going forward.
Space savings from not shipping fat binaries for everything will probably also be not insignificant. Or make room for a new fat binary for a future "arm64v2" :)