Virtualisation on Apple Silicon Macs is different
5 hours ago
- #Virtualisation
- #macOS
- #Apple silicon
- Apple silicon Macs include built-in virtualisation support via macOS, enabling VMs for macOS, Linux, and Windows on Arm.
- Apple uses Virtio drivers for device abstraction, improving efficiency and reducing development costs for virtualisers like VMware and Parallels.
- Performance in VMs is near-native, with benchmarks showing high CPU and GPU scores, though multi-core performance is limited by core availability.
- Rosetta 2 can translate Intel apps within macOS VMs, even after Apple drops host support in future macOS versions.
- Limitations include no App Store app support due to credential checks, iCloud access only in Sequoia or later, and network/audio quirks.
- Apple's licence allows up to two macOS VMs for specific purposes like development, testing, or personal use.
- Use cases include running older macOS apps, testing betas, isolating sensitive data, and accessing different iCloud accounts.