Buying macOS Software now?

Posted by Skywatcher
Jul 2, 2020 at 12:15 PM

I’ve been using Macs for long enough to remember the transition from PowerPC to Intel. That was truly an earthquake. And yet we survived :-) It was painful at times, Rosetta didn’t work for some categories of software, but in the end the transition was for the better. And that was the first time Apple went this kind of massive change hardware-wise, while being a smaller company than they are today.

The general feeling i’m seeing around about this new transition is actually much more positive than it was about the previous one. ARM RISC architecture is really promising to be a powerful chip, solving many of the issues that Intel are stuck on like thermal issues. Fluid intercompatibility between iOS and MacOS apps is exciting. And Rosetta2 seems to be far more efficient and more compatible that its predecessor.

I was quite worried and anxious during the PowerPC->Intel . In perspective, going thru that makes more optimistic about this transition. I don’t think it will be 100% fluid, there will be hiccups, but I think the experience they gathered thru the first one gives them now enough assurance to handle it even better.
I’m however not going to jump on a ARM machine when they come out. Not before at least 2 years until all potential issues are ironed out.

I don’t think there should be any fear buying Mac software today. During the PowerPC /Intel transition, most developpers offered their dual PowerPC/Intel versions updates for free or for a very low fee so I expect something similar will happen.