Will every single random command line linux tool have to have an ARM version to work on ARM Macs?

[audiomatt]

That would be a gigantic loss for the Mac. Obviously apple is going to recompile all the built in tools but so so so so so so many tasks include downloading and installing so so so so so so many random linux tools from far flung parts of the internet and points in history.

Like... is anything like that going to work once we transition to ARM? Especially if they're saying that they're done making intel Macs in two years. If I had to spend "a few days" recompiling everything that brew and macports have installed, it would take millennia.

 

[chrfr]

That would be a gigantic loss for the Mac. Obviously apple is going to recompile all the built in tools but so so so so so so many tasks include downloading and installing so so so so so so many random linux tools from far flung parts of the internet and points in history.

Like... is anything like that going to work once we transition to ARM? Especially if they're saying that they're done making intel Macs in two years. If I had to spend "a few days" recompiling everything that brew and macports have installed, it would take millennia.

In general Apple's not using Linux versions of command line tools but yes, at some point, everything would need to be recompiled for the ARM CPU. In the interim, most Intel versions should still work via Rosetta.
Keep in mind that many of these tools already exist for ARM CPUs- among other things, the Raspberry Pi uses ARM CPUs.

 

[audiomatt]

In general Apple's not using Linux versions of command line tools but yes, at some point, everything would need to be recompiled for the ARM CPU. In the interim, most Intel versions should still work via Rosetta.
Keep in mind that many of these tools already exist for ARM CPUs- among other things, the Raspberry Pi uses ARM CPUs.

That... that's going to be terrible. Hope they don't yank rosetta too soon because damn! They're gonna lose a lot of people when "Everything runs fine" except one thing in the stack of installs and it screws everything up for years.

 

[MichaelDT]

MacOS is not Linux, not even close and it never was. It is a BSD Kernel grafted onto Mach and a FreeBSD based userland. They do share some GNU utilities.

 

[jerwin]

I thought the whole point of macports, brew, fink, etc was to automate the build process. Can't you just pick a few ambitious packages-- (I use octave) and have it build every dependency for you in the background?

 

[MisterAndrew]

Good question. I like using various Linux tools on the command line like Python scripts. I guess that stuff would just need to be recompiled.

 

[theluggage]

Like... is anything like that going to work once we transition to ARM? Especially if they're saying that they're done making intel Macs in two years. If I had to spend "a few days" recompiling everything that brew and macports have installed, it would take millennia.

First, it's perfectly feasible that Rosetta2 will work with binaries run from the command line. Not a certainty, but we're not exactly swimming in details yet.

Second, no it's not going to be all running on day one - but most of the tools you are talking about are already running on ARM 64 Linux so any serious problems with ARM architecture (and there shouldn't be many) are likely to have been solved. The Linux/Unix community is doing this all the time for platforms far more obscure than the ARM Mac and, because it is open source, anybody can take on part of the work. This has happened before, it will happen again - unless ARM Macs are a complete flop.

Apple have already said that they're contributing to open-source projects like Chromium and V8 (which, honestly, are going to be the tricky ones).

Or - several of the major Linux distros already have pretty much complete ARM64 distros with all the usual suspects in their repositories and Apple have shown an ARM Linux distro running in a VMon an ARM Mac, so that's another route.

 

[Nermal]

First, it's perfectly feasible that Rosetta2 will work with binaries run from the command line. Not a certainty, but we're not exactly swimming in details yet.

This page implies that it can: It says that you should build Arm versions of command-line tools, and that debugging the Intel slice will need to be done via Rosetta (or on Intel hardware).

 

[Kung gu]

 

[leman]

That would be a gigantic loss for the Mac. Obviously apple is going to recompile all the built in tools but so so so so so so many tasks include downloading and installing so so so so so so many random linux tools from far flung parts of the internet and points in history.

Like... is anything like that going to work once we transition to ARM?

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Most Linux open source stuff works unmodified for ARM. I mean, Linux has been running on ARM for years and unless its an Intel-specific tool people usually test for cross-arch anyway.

 

[jerwin]

View attachment 927428

so if Applescript and Automator are deprecated, is there a proper way to script things?

 

[chrfr]

so if Applescript and Automator are deprecated, is there a proper way to script things?

Both AppleScript and Automator are still in Big Sur, so they work for now.

 

[audiomatt]

Both AppleScript and Automator are still in Big Sur, so they work for now.

it would be nice if they had a decent JavaScript api. I know you can technically do it but its undersupported and complicated

 

[Superhai]

Good question. I like using various Linux tools on the command line like Python scripts. I guess that stuff would just need to be recompiled.

Python is not compiled but interpreted, and the python executable itself compiled fine on arm64.
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Like... is anything like that going to work once we transition to ARM? Especially if they're saying that they're done making intel Macs in two years. If I had to spend "a few days" recompiling everything that brew and macports have installed, it would take millennia.

Most stuff on package managers are updated so frequently that it will be recompiled already and should likely be a nonissue for almost everything.