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Comment by jcelerier | Hacker News Reader

> Docker x86 version already supports running ARM images via qemu out of the box on Windows and Mac

it "works", but on my overpowered i7, running a raspberry pi docker image that way with qemu-user-static is... only marginally faster than running the code on an actual rpi 3, which is pretty much potato-levels of power.

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Yep, so if you're a developer and buy a Macbook with the M1, all the potential performance gains would be lost when depending on common Docker images. That's quite sad.

(It would at least be a huge problem for me. I mostly develop server software that runs on Kubernetes on AMD64 machines.)

Why not just run the ARM images instead of the x64? Granted not everyone makes ARM images, but in a year or so I fully expect that all serious Docker images will have ARM support (not because of Mac, but rather because of ARM’s progress in the server space). And in the meanwhile, building the image yourself isn’t that hard.

Why would your employer pay you to build and test ARM images when the server they're running on is AMD64? Okay, let's be realistic: they'll probably never find out. But still this is wasted effort when you could just as well use a regular x86 machine for development. Cross compilation will lead to many small problems that add up over time...

They would do it so their developers can use Macbooks.

More likely than not, those servers are at AWS. And if that's the case, once all the components have ARM images the server instances can be switched over to the M6g instance type for significant cost savings.

Even if not AWS, every cloud provider will have cheaper ARM offerings in a few years. The writing is on the wall at this point. Not to mention that some significant portion of the PC market will certainly follow suit, and now whether you’re developing for desktop, mobile, or server, there’s a good chance you’ll be targeting ARM.

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