Apple prepares macOS users for discontinuation of 32-bit app support

[BugsJustFindMe]

I love many things about Mac OS, but one thing that I really truly absolutely love with a passion above all else about Microsoft Windows is that a Win32 executable compiled 17 years ago in XP will still run today on a brand new Windows 10 machine with zero fuss. There's something to be said for not destroying the past in the name of progress. Not everything gets rewritten for the shiny new system framework. Sometimes people make something great and then die.

[sebazzz]

Windows XP? Even Deus Ex, which is compatible with Windows 95, runs on Windows 10. Note that such compatibility is also dependend on the game developer. If the used undocumented methods or undefined behavior it may not run on more modern OS. Especially games like The Sims have this issue - and ironically, some relative newer AAA games.

[scarface74]

Getting backwards compatibility forever doesn't come for free, check out some of the MSDN blogs where they discuss all the hacks they've done over the years to maintain backwards compatibility.

There were a lot of security exploits that were discovered in old long forgotten 32 bit Code.

[tinus_hn]

That’s what emulators are for. Run the old OS in a box so you don’t have to pay for supporting ancient crap in the new OS.

[thinkythought]

This is a huge crap sandwich if you need to use 32 bit version of pro apps(especially pro audio apps, in my case) to use sometimes expensive plugins that aren't compatible with the 64 bit version of the software, or aren't without expensive upgrades or shim libraries.

Obviously you can work around this for new projects, but it leaves you in the position of needed to keep an old machine or VM around just for opening old project files that would be useless without those plugins. I've talked to multiple people in this situation.

The 64 bit only switch was easy on iOS compared to this. Yes, there's new versions of the applications themselves available, but a whole host of plugins for audio(and i've heard video and photo apps) are going to get left in the dust here leaving people in the lurch.

[mrmondo]

Glad to see the last of the old 32bit legacy go, of course the good thing is if someone did want to run some ancient software that’s 32bit or even 16bit you can still spin up a VM of a legacy OS that can run those binaries.

[Aloha]

I guess nothing lasts forever, sadly perhaps.

[b1daly]

You can save a copy of your old boot drive at least, and boot from that to access your projects. FWIW keeping an old machine around is not that outlandish of an idea.

A computer is a universal machine, and it comes with trade offs. If you want something that doesn’t change, don’t change it.

[TazeTSchnitzel]

This will be the final death of the Carbon API, since it was never supported for 64-bit.

[Aloha]

that was my first thought when I read this - I just didn't think anyone much cared about Carbon anymore - but it will be the last gasp of the traditional Macintosh ecosystem.

[goalieca]

About time. There was only 1 generation of Intel macs that didn’t have 64-bit and it is not supported by latest OS anyways.

[rconti]

Would that have been MacBook/iMac/Mac Mini type models?

I have a first-gen Mac Pro (August 2006) and it's 64-bit.

[Aloha]

Why does it matter?

It's not as if there is any real performance penalty of running 32-bit and 64-bit apps concurrently.

[exikyut]

I guess this is the perfect place to ask: what virtualization platforms run 32-bit OS X (since I guess that's what it was called when it was 32-bit) Really Really Well, and how/where can I learn about how to set everything up perfectly?

[hedgehog]

I think there are a few options that can boot OS X including VirtualBox (x86), SheepShaver (PPC), and QEMU (both?). The big missing piece for a good user experience is video acceleration. From experience using OS X in VMs for build it's pretty miserable with the software renderer.

[orionblastar]

https://github.com/BlastarIndia/OSX-KVM/blob/master/README.m...

It is possible to run older MacOS installs in QEMU under MacOS or Linux on a real Mac.

So if you need 32 bit MacOS apps just run an older MacOS in an emulator.

On Windows they shut out 16 bit apps in 64 bit Windows but DOSBOX and Windows 3.1 under DOSBOX solve that via emulation.

[graeme]

Is this the end of iwork 09?

I still have some manuscripts in Pages 09, as Pages 13 never added many of the features. I guess I'll have to look for a new workflow.

[throwawayfinal]

Learn word. It's still best in class.

Or LibreOffice. Depending on the type of manuscript, Dryad or celtx.

Of course, I don't know your workflow.

[sashk]

Out of all apps I have I know of four which are 32-bit:

- 3 of them are from my (older?) Brother Printer. - 32-bit kdb+ I use sometime for calculations

I can live without them. :)

[FraKtus]

Too bad that Apple never made AV Fondation having the same features than QuickTime... How can we add dynamically video codecs to macOS ? How can we extend the support of acquisition devices ? What API can we use to do video editing... How can we support ProRes on Windows in 64 bits ?

[johncolanduoni]

I’m curious if they’ll drop support for 32-bit processes in the kernel or just stop shipping fat libraries.

[DaiPlusPlus]

I’m curious what it means for Fat Binaries in general. Methinks this will be the first time in a long while where Apple became a true CPU monoculture on the desktop, previously they straddled 68k, PowerPC, IA-32, and AMD64. It gives Apple an excuse to stop using Fat executables entirely - unless they decide to look at using ARM on laptops...

[JohnTHaller]

Sadly, it appears this will kill most of the Wine projects on macOS. It's a bummer as I've used it for a couple Windows projects to run on mac.

[d1zzy]

Good luck with completely removing support to run 32 bit applications and all those 32 bit videogames (which is the vast majority of them). Or any other 32 bit application that won't ever receive updates.

[lemoncucumber]

What makes you think Apple cares? Most serious gamers would already be dual-booting Windows if they want to game on a Mac, and most casual gamers presumably wouldn't consider it a dealbreaker to have older games stop working.

[ksk]

This is kind of why I personally don't take OSX to be a serious platform for wide scale deployment. Companies make long-term investments in purchasing software that works, and they would like for that software to keep working, and don't care about fancy new OS features.

[shmerl]

So no more 32-bit games in Wine for macOS users? Another reason to switch to Linux for them.

[kstrauser]

Asking seriously: are there any 32-bit games so new that they wouldn't run just as well under VirtualBox?