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Comment by user5994461 | Hacker News Reader

>>> Does anybody know how Steam handles the new macs?

Games are mostly C++, based on my experience with C++ codebases I'd say there's about zero chance that a game could be (easily) recompiled and made to work on ARM.

And games won't be ported anyway because it's too much work for too little sales, even if a developer really wanted to make it work they'd need a $2000 new mac to be able to compile/test in the first place.

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As someone who cross compiles C++ to arm (and others) as part of my $dayjob, I sincerely don't understand this comment. I would like to, as maybe there's something I misunderstand.

Ninja edit: I guess you're suggesting that some parts are in hand rolled x86 assembly, not just pure C++ that would be output as the cross compiler target architecture?

There's usually a million assumptions that are technically undefined behaviour but work, and immediately break if you try to cross-compile by just changing the target system in CMake or w/e.

I could see that if it were being compiled against another libc as well. It's true my experience is with a codebase that has forever been cross compiled. Just altering the output architecture I guess I just haven't seen be an issue. Aarch64 hasn't ever given me an "immediately break" scenario. If it compiles, it works. Ymmv though. Computers are complex.

Most games that survived the 32 bit -> 64 bit change and run in Catalina should run under Rosetta2 with no changes.

Performance? Who knows.

$2,000 is a stretch. You can get the high-end M1 Mini for about $1,200. A high-end M1 MBP for under $1,800.

The Macbook Pro that is $1200 in the US is £1300 in the UK and 1449€ in France. Apple products are way more expensive outside of the US.

Plus another 100 or 200 in adapters. It's beyond me why they would make a laptop with zero USB and zero HDMI ports.

Total is $2000 when converted back in USD.

A business doesn't pay the VAT, so the $700 basic M1 Mini is £583, which is $772.

The 10% might still be to account for the instability of the GBP.

The new MacBooks have 2 USB ports.

One of them is used for charging, so you really only have one useable port. Still, TB3 dock should be able to provide enough ports for most people (at the expense of portability).

Not to defend Apple because your point is valid, but you can buy a $25 Anker hub and run power through that and gain a ton of ports.

Not really. You could try to get a $25 hub from Amazon and hope it works, half the reviews seems to disagree on that.

However it still won't give you any HDMI or audio or Ethernet output. If you try to get one more adapter, say HDMI to connect a projector, you won't be able to plug it because there was only one thunderbolt port in the first place.

£75 pounds for basic connectivity https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/MUF82ZM/A/usb-c-digita...

£120 pounds for dual display with dual USB. https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/HMX02ZM/A/caldigit-thu...

£230 for a dock https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/HMX12Z/A/caldigit-ts3-...

I dunno what you're on about, here are a couple of Anker adapters I use just fine, all day every day.

That said, it sounds like you're really not interested in this market and I recommend you look elsewhere for a solution.

https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Upgraded-Delivery-Pixelbook-A83...

https://www.amazon.com/Anker-PowerExpand-Adapter-Delivery-Et...

Prices in France are TTC (Toutes Taxes Comprises, all taxes included), the VAT in France is 20% so if you take 20% off 1400€ you end up with 1159€ which is $1370. So in the end the MBP is a bit cheaper in France than in the US.

Apple claims there is not a significant translation slowdown when using Rosetta 2 to run graphics heavy workloads.

Maybe you're talking about indie developers. I don't think studios worry about spending $2000/machine for porting. And a lot of studios also outsource porting

Or a $700 mini.

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