Apple details the end of Intel Mac support and a phaseout for Rosetta 2

28 airhangerf15 6 6/9/2025, 10:56:59 PM arstechnica.com ↗

Comments (6)

jshier · 3h ago
They won't do it, as they hate anything more than a minimal testing matrix, but it would be nice if, when the Intel versions of the system frameworks are fully removed, Rosetta 2 could be updated to include them as a downloadable component, so we could keep easy Intel support for those that really need it. It sounds like they're going to do something similar for games, where you can download a version of Rosetta 2 specifically created for them, but it would be nice to make them available for any app.
k_roy · 1h ago
They won't do it?

Something something seventh incarnation. This is hardly the first time they've changed architectures. I'm actually a little impressed they actually held on this long.

Intel emulation effectively sucks compared to native apps in every way.

This is where we are.

kemotep · 2h ago
I mean officially Apple no longer supports 32-bit applications, so it’s not a stretch to say they will completely drop x86 support. How many PowerPC MacOS apps work still?
makeitdouble · 1h ago
Docker still relies on Rosetta 2 on some parts, I wonder how it will go on that front

https://docs.docker.com/desktop/setup/install/mac-install/

While the documentation doesn't really dig on the issue, I remember it was needed for x86 emulation (if you're trying an older image of MySQL for instance), so I guess other platform emulation will be significantly harder from now on for Apple Silicon ?

magic_hamster · 1h ago
Rosetta 2 is pretty important for running amd64 containers on Mac. Removing it will be a big disadvantage. Why take something that works well and throw it away with no alternative?