Why the M1 Chip Is a Problem For Windows Software. Apple’s M1 chip is the first Apple Silicon chip. With the Launch of the new Apple Silicon M1 Macs, ONE QUESTION EVERYONE want to know is; Can the New MacBook M1 RUN Windows 10?Will it be possible? 発売日に予約したMacBook Airが昨日やっと届いたので、ぼちぼち触ってるんだけど、周りに話を聞くと迷ってる人がいるようなので、買うまでに悩んだことや、この1日ちょっと触って分かったことを書き留めておく。 AppleのM1搭載Macレビュー インテル用ソフトも快適 アップルは同社のパソコンで. I purchased a 2020 Mac Mini with the new M1 chip and transferred the apps, files, and setting from a 2014 Mac Mini. Uninstalled older VirtualBox with their uninstaller and installed the latest version. Uninstalled an older Vagrant with the uninstaller and installed the latest version of Vagrant. Deleted.vagrant.d in the user directory.
I’m old enough to remember when Mac used propriety chips in their computers. They were called “PowerPC” or PPC. Proprietary chips mean proprietary code to run them. . Such as it was with the old OS X operating systems. Right around 2005 Apple announced it would transition to Intel chips which most of the rest of the world was running on already. It opened up a new world of software and hardware to the Mac.
People found they could run OS X on Intel PC’s (aka Hackintosh).
Now here we are again 16 years later and Mac has gone their own route and selected another proprietary chip, the M1 which is ARM based and not X86. When you think ARM, think Raspberry Pi.
The advantages to doing this are MANY. Apple controls the hardware build and can write tight code for that specific hardware. The chips are FAST.
THE DOWNSIDE HERE IS THAT YOU LOSE LEGACY COMPATIBILITY. That old hardware you have connected to USB may not work anymore. That old hunk of software you love may not work anymore. Or the software you love may have to run on top of something called “Rosetta 2” which allows Intel apps to run on ARM OS’s. So there could be hiccups with that as well.
So lets get to my experience:
I built a man cave hobby room that has 3D printers, a vinyl sign cutter and a laser cutter. Most everything in the room was controlled by a Mac mini (Late 2012) which no longer has support for the latest operating system. It has reached the end of its life. Realistically it will still be supported for 2 years or so but old John won’t be. Old John is retiring and has to buy this crap while he still has a check. So I got me a shiny new M1 Mac mini.
So I unbox it and hook it up to my HP monitor which is fairly old and has a DVI input (which I have a DVI to HDMI adapter on).
Boot and then……..nada. Nothing. A couple of flashes and my heart sinks. I think my new Mac mini must have taken a jolt in shipping or something. A quick internet search reveals about 42,612 very angry people that their DVI monitors don’t work.
So just for fun I go grab a new 32″ TV I have and hook it to the HDMI and it boots right up and the display is great. Basically Dr. Google says that you need a USB-C to DVI adapter and things will work fine. Just for fun I actually have a
HDMI Adapter
Okay, I want you to visualize something. The back of the Mac mini has an HDMI port. When I hook an HDMI cable from the Mac to the adapter on the back of the TV…….. IT DOES NOT WORK.
When I plug this adapter into a USB-C port on the back of the Mac and hook an HDMI cable to the adapter and the other end to the TV………..IT WORKS!
How in the tap dancing hell does that make sense?
That adapter costs $70 new and I use it for a lot of other stuff. I need it elsewhere. Not only that it ties up one of those fast Thunderbolt (USB-C) ports that I think I’m going to need.
But, lets not lose sight of the fact that my ancient monitor DOES INDEED work now. At any rate, with a new Mac mini with an M1 chip you’re probably going to have to factor in that you need a newer hardware monitor than I have or you will need an adapter. You can find really cheap HDMI to DVI adapters BUT NOT ALL OF THEM WORK. It’s a mess. And it seems to be an OS software mess. Not a hardware problem.
Next issue I stumbled into is that as much as I hate to admit it…………I run Windows in Virtualbox on my Mac mini. That is until I got an M1 because Virtualbox doesn’t work on an M1. Currently the only way to run Windows is by using a Tech Preview of Parallels and a beta version of Windows 10 for ARM processors.
If you think Windows is an unstable OS try running it on a beta Parallels with a beta non Intel version. It WILL NOT install legacy x86 drivers. I have a Roland GX-24 vinyl sign cutter and it works under software which has its own drivers such as CoCut Pro or EasyCut Studio but the Roland Windows 10 drivers WILL NOT INSTALL. Fortunately for me EasyCut Studio Mac version works fine on the M1 and I can do 99% of what I want to do on it. My heavy lifting software, CoCut 2017 (Windows only) does in fact install on bastardized Windows 10 ARM and it does work so I’m set.
My laser etcher uses a program called LaserGRBL which is Windows only and it also installs. I do find that when I run the program in Parallels it’s a little goofy getting the USB connected laser machine accessible to the virtualized Windows and I even found I might have to reboot MacOS to get it back visible to Mac. 99.9% to 100% of what I do with the laser machine can be done in a Mac program called “Lightburn” which works fine on the M1.
Virtualbox Macbook M1
My 3D printer software (PrusaSlicer) works fine under MacOS on the M1.
Finally I have a Police Scanner in the other room which has 3rd party, Windows only software called ProScan which allows me to listen to the scanner on my local network. It took me quite some time to get it working and the issues were with Parallels and the Windows sound devices. Right at this moment I’m not sure what I did right but it is working right now. I’m scared to reboot the Windows session!
Make no mistake though, Parallels Tech Preview running Windows 10 ARM is a turd of epic proportions. It crashes FREQUENTLY and almost never connects to the internet first time causing me to have to run the troubleshooter. Running the troubleshooter resets the ethernet adapter which connects it to the internet but I’m running on Wifi through Parallels and not using ethernet so who knows what the hell is going on?
PROS AND CONS
PROS
- Probably the biggest advantage is that the chip architecture between the iPhone and iPad and these new M1 chips is very similar. You can run iPhone and iPad apps on your M1 app. That may or may not seem useful at the moment but what it means is that the Mac ecosystem can get way tighter and way better. Stand by for great things from the ecosystem.
- Mac M1 is lightning fast. Even lightning says “Phew” when it sees the Mac M1 operate.
- Specific Code tied to specific hardware is always best. When you have something like an Intel platform and 4 million people make devices and drivers for it there are going to be problems.
- Not as expensive as most Macs
- Rosetta 2 seems to run all of my Intel Mac programs that I use and I’m pretty damn diverse. I have a lot of junk.
- Lots of ports and 3rd party vendors make external hard drive adapters that have lots more ports. It is best to buy the cheap 256 GB Mac and get a hard drive caddy with extra ports. It will save a ton of money over buying a Mac with a 1 TB drive. A. Lot. Of. Money.
CONS
- Big issues with legacy hardware with x86 drivers
- Big issues with running virtualization software
- Big issues with HDMI to DVI
- Using an adapter to hook up a DVI monitor makes you lose one of your high speed Thunderbolt ports.
- Lots of users claim horrific Bluetooth issues (no problems for me).
Conclusions
If you are a Mac only dude living in a lonely world (sorry that song was just on the radio) then an M1 is your Huckleberry. It’s super fast and will run your Mac ecosystem with aplomb. (Sorry, I just wanted to say aplomb somewhere).
If you have a roomful of old USB devices that you need Windows software and legacy x86 drivers to operate then maybe you better just get a Windows computer.
If you need to run other OS’s in virtualization software get another laptop and slap Ubuntu Linux on it because you ain’t gonna virtualize on this Mac M1, at least not yet.
With M1 Macs mere days away for early adopters, those who need to run virtual machines on their Macs may have a bumpy time ahead.
It is important to note that currently available versions of Parallels® Desktop for Mac cannot run virtual machines on Mac with Apple M1 chip. Good news: A new version of Parallels Desktop for Mac that can run on Mac with Apple M1 chip is already in active development.
When Apple Silicon Mac was first announced during the keynote at WWDC on June 22 of this year, Apple demoed a Parallels Desktop for Mac prototype running a Linux virtual machine flawlessly on Apple Silicon. Since WWDC, our new version of Parallels Desktop which runs on Mac with Apple M1 chip has made tremendous progress. We switched Parallels Desktop to universal binary and optimized its virtualization code; and the version that we are eager to try on these new MacBook Air, Mac mini and MacBook Pro 13″ looks very promising.
VMWare Fusion isn’t ready yet either, according to this tweet:
So excited for todays announcements from @Apple!
Mac Mini M1 Virtualbox Software
While we're not quite ready to announce our timeline, we're happy to say that we are committed to delivering VMware virtual machines on #AppleSilicon! pic.twitter.com/en1FNorxrM
— VMware Fusion (@VMwareFusion) November 10, 2020
Even when these and other virtualization tools are ready,1 running Windows as a VM atop a M1 Mac probably isn’t going to be. So far, all the public has seen running virtually on M1 Macs is ARM-based Linux, back at WWDC.
Microsoft has a version of Windows running on ARM chips, but as of this summer, things didn’t look great for getting it to run virtually on the new Macs:
“Microsoft only licenses Windows 10 on ARM to OEMs,” says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. We asked Microsoft if it plans to change this policy to allow Windows 10 on ARM-based Macs, and the company says “we have nothing further to share at this time.”
Virtualbox M1 Chip
That said, ARM Windows is getting better. Back in September, Microsoft announced that the ARM version of Windows 10 is gaining x64 emulation:
We are excited about the momentum we are seeing from app partners embracing Windows 10 on ARM, taking advantage of the power and performance benefits of Qualcomm Snapdragon processors. We heard your feedback and are making Microsoft Edge faster while using less battery, and announced that we will soon release a native Microsoft Teams client optimized for Windows 10 on ARM. We will also expand support for running x64 apps, with x64 emulation starting to roll out to the Windows Insider Program in November. Because developers asked, Visual Studio Code has also been updated and optimized for Windows 10 on ARM. For organizations, we’re committed to helping them ensure their apps work with Windows 10 and Microsoft 365 Apps on ARM64 devices with App Assure.
Before this, the ARM version of Windows could only emulate 32-bit applications. It’s a nice improvement, and maybe one day it will matter to Mac users.
- Oh, and Boot Camp is totes dead. Docker is currently busted, but should work in the future. ↩