[Info-vax] Apple Mac architecture transitions; iPhone support (was: Re: Taking a break - Open Source on OpenVMS Conference Calls Resume in the FALL of 2022...)

VAXman- at SendSpamHere.ORG VAXman- at SendSpamHere.ORG
Tue Jul 5 17:32:38 EDT 2022


In article <ta28vo$3q5kr$1 at dont-email.me>, Stephen Hoffman <seaohveh at hoffmanlabs.invalid> writes:
>On 2022-07-04 10:33:20 +0000, seasoned_geek said:
>
>> On Sunday, July 3, 2022 at 8:33:33 PM UTC-5, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>> On 7/3/2022 10:14 AM, seasoned_geek wrote:
>>>> That's exactly what people who know nothing said about Apple each and 
>>>> every time it completely abandoned a platform.
>>> And why Apple jumped through hoops to make the new platforms compatible 
>>> with the old.
>> 
>> Not really.
>> https://www.howtogeek.com/677270/deja-vu-a-brief-history-of-every-mac-cpu-architecture/ 
>> 
>> 
>> I never heard of anyone being able to use Lisa software on Macintosh or 
>> any Macintosh stuff being able to run on iMac.
>
>Lisa is from ~1983, and failed in the market.
>
>The Mac got going in ~1984 with Motorola 68000 hardware, and later 
>migrated to IBM/Motorola PPC hardware.
>
>I'll skip forward to the last ~quarter-century of Mac history in the 
>following...
>
>Pre-Y2K OS 9 "Classic" apps continued to run on Mac PPC OS X hardware 
>using the Classic support available through OS X 10.5. Then PPC apps 
>continued until OS X 10.7 on Intel hardware, using Rosetta. Intel apps 
>now are continuing to run on Mac with Apple silicon hardware using 
>Rosetta 2.
>
>PPC to Intel was a fast transition, yes. 
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_transition_to_Intel_processors
>
>Intel to Apple silicon got going in 2020, and there are at least two 
>Intel models still being sold. Here's the transition: 
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_transition_to_Apple_silicon
>
>Apple doesn't keep the old hardware and under- or un-maintained apps 
>around all that long after a transition, but never has. Apple does keep 
>the transitional stuff around for a hardware generation or so.
>
>In parallel, the 32-bit to 64-bit transition took a ~decade; from OS X 
>10.5 or so, and the transition was completed with macOS 10.15 and the 
>removal of 32-bit APIs and frameworks. OpenVMS tried a different 
>approach for this migration, keeping everything. Or at least trying to. 
>Which makes adopting the resulting 64-bit environment more complex 
>particularly for new work, and means that some of the more problematic 
>APIs are also still in active use.
>
>The iMac product name has been used for hardware with PPC, Intel, and 
>Apple silicon processors, and models have booted and run Classic, OS X, 
>and now macOS, so that name doesn't narrow down the transition as much 
>as might be assumed.
>
>> Apple completely abandons its customer base with each processor change. 
>> The switch to Apple made ARM processors for notebooks/laptops/desktops 
>> may be the only switch with a semi-compatible code base for the OS . . 
>> . assuming they stick with their butchered BSD.
>
>Rosetta and Rosetta 2 work well. A whole lot of folks have been using 
>Rosetta 2 to run their Intel apps on their Apple silicon Macs, too.
>
>One area that's been lumpy for folks buying Apple silicon Macs have 
>been those folks trying to use Intel operating systems on Apple silicon 
>hardware, and Apple never supported that.  Absent a hypervisor with 
>emulation (UTM, or QEMU directly, etc), the operating system needs to 
>be ported. The Linux port is working. Windows for Arm is working too, 
>though Microsoft is not (yet?) selling and not supporting that as a 
>product for use on Apple silicon Macs.
>
>> Phones have a market life of about six months. You need lead time if 
>> you are going to use "the cool new hardware"
>
>Google Pixel was getting up to three years of updates, last I checked.
>
>Cheaper and generic and Android phones tend to be much closer to 
>disposable, yes.
>
>Apple iPhone tends to go for three to five years from purchase, there 
>are a lot of folks still running yet older models.
>
>For updates, iPhone 6s (2015) and newer models are all getting updates 
>to the current iOS 15 version.
>
>iPhone 8 (2017) and newer will be getting support and updates for the 
>upcoming iOS 16 version, arriving later this year.

... and then, they released Big Sewer and lost me as an Apple fanboi.  

-- 
VAXman- A Bored Certified VMS Kernel Mode Hacker    VAXman(at)TMESIS(dot)ORG

I speak to machines with the voice of humanity.



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