[TUHS] Re: Maintenance mode on AIX

On Wed, 18 Jan 2023 at 18:22, Will Senn <will.senn(a)gmail.com> wrote: True! Me too. I have some irreplaceable 32-bit apps. I agree. *But* the thing is this, and I am theorizing here. Apple is trying to move to Arm-ISA Macs with its own very highly integrated chipset. This is imposing some issues. E.g. The M1 Macs can't boot from an external device if the internal one fails. You can't just put in a USB key and start from it. You can't just remove a failed drive, replace it, format it, reinstall the OS and keep going. https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/437022/can-apple-silicon-based-ma… They seem to lack the old 68K/PowerPC/x86 fairly clean separation between firmware and OS on a disk. They are, pretty much, the whole computer on a single SOC. The first SOC was the ARM250: CPU + GPU + memory controller. Then FPU and bus controllers and interfaces and things moved on board too. Now, the RAM is on board, and the SSD is also built in if not on the same die. It is extremely hard to replace/upgrade them, e.g. https://www.macrumors.com/2021/04/06/m1-mac-ram-and-ssd-upgrades-possible/ In a way the Arm Macs are sort of like iPads with external screens. It is also notable that there is _still_ no Arm-based Mac Pro: I don't think they've found a way to make their new architecture as modular, with external GPUs and an expansion bus. I suspect they won't be able to and eventually the Intel kit will quietly disappear with no direct replacement. So I think that Apple is trying to make the OS as *extremely* robust and tamper-proof as they can, because if that soldered-in-place disk gets scrambled or compromised, then the expensive hardware is basically toast. I don't like it either and I don't want an Arm-powered Mac for now... but I sort of understand what they are trying to do, I think. -- Liam Proven ~ Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lproven(a)cix.co.uk ~ gMail/gTalk/FB: lproven(a)gmail.com Twitter/LinkedIn: lproven ~ Skype: liamproven UK: (+44) 7939-087884 ~ Czech [+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal]: (+420) 702-829-053