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by ducktective 2006 days ago
Yeah, until the developers decide to release only for Arm targets and when you search issues for x86 build, the maintainer says "just compile it yourself"...

And you look into the dockerfile manifest and see that it wants to pull the whole stack of history of computing...Then you figure maybe you don't need that shiny utility in the first place and move on...

It's "64 vs 32-bit" or "Ubuntu vs Arch vs Fedora binary" all over again...
2 comments
ogre_codes 2006 days ago
> Yeah, until the developers decide to release only for Arm targets and when you search issues for x86 build, the maintainer says "just compile it yourself"...

Until we start seeing reasonably priced, performant ARM desktops and laptops, there is little worry of that. Right now outside Apple, performance on ARM isn't good enough for any kind of great developer experience (or any kind of pro experience). Unless that changes significantly, x86 is going to be dominant on non-Macs for some time.

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pjmlp 2006 days ago
On desktops yes, ARM rules on mobile devices and plenty of us code for them, and on Android unless you are doing CRUD like apps, most likely there is some C or C++ code as well.
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totalZero 2006 days ago
Apple is 15% of the personal computer market, if I'm not mistaken. Their intention to abandon x86 isn't a clarion call for the obsolescence of x86.

Personal computers generally go where Windows goes. Heck, that's arguably part of why Apple left PowerPC for Intel in the first place. Apple has tremendous impact on design, form factor, and other visionary steps that the market takes. I do not deny that. Still, in terms of hardware and the development ecosystem, Microsoft simply has a lot more market inertia than does Apple.

This is nothing like 64bit vs 32bit. That was a difficult (MacOS didn't drop 32bit app support until Catalina) but obvious (unless you hate RAM) leap forward. In contrast, Apple Silicon is a leap sideways whose opportunity arose because Intel's flagship process node has had a rough few years. There may be inherent advantages to Apple Silicon as a technology, but nobody should make the unproven assumption that Apple Silicon is universally superior to any and every possible TSMC 5nm x86 chip.

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garciasn 2005 days ago
They are roughly 15% of the US market and about 7% globally.
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