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M4 Macs can't virtualise older macOS

(eclecticlight.co)
176 points Brajeshwar | 3 comments | 16 Nov 24 16:12 UTC | HN request time: 0.67s | source
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doomlaser ◴[16 Nov 24 16:38 UTC] No.42157271[source]▶
Come on, Apple. What are you doing? I was thinking just the other day that Apple should virtualize older iPhones within the latest iPhone system software, so you could seamlessly open old apps and games (32-bit, anyone?) in their own containerized environments. I can't think why they haven't added this feature for any reason other than money grubbing.

You could even customize the containers to be completely closed off from the rest of the iPhone—no contacts, no Internet access (or high security Internet access), etc.

Come on, Apple. Do something good for once. Oh and bring back the headphone jack.

-Mark

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Hackbraten ◴[16 Nov 24 16:46 UTC] No.42157329[source]▶
Someone would have to maintain all the old OS versions that would be required to run those old apps, and keep those OS versions reasonably secure. That sounds like a maintenance nightmare to me.
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1. exe34 ◴[16 Nov 24 17:04 UTC] No.42157442[source]▶
No, the old versions would not have access to anything else, so the only thing that needs to change is the part running the container. Present one folder as the whole disk drive to the old. Send touch screen input to the old. That's about it really.
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2. Hackbraten ◴[16 Nov 24 17:46 UTC] No.42157714[source]▶
If you're trying to play older 32-bit games, chances are you'd like to have sound, too.

Who is going to develop the virtual audio device drivers (for each OS) that are required to virtualize sound? Who is going to run all the tests needed to make sure that the guest-side 32-bit iOS 7 (and 8, 9, 10) drivers are going to play well with the host-side driver?

Who is going to accept the risk that someone takes over the guest VM after exploiting one of the well-known and unpatched kernel-level vulnerabilities present in iOS 10? What happens if malware finds and exploits a bug in that new audio driver virtualization pipeline so it can escape the VM and then compromise the host iOS?

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3. exe34 ◴[16 Nov 24 18:17 UTC] No.42157979[source]▶
yeah it's much better to lose access to games you've paid for. this is why I stopped buying apps on Android - if it's not open source, I'm not interested. I also don't buy DRM stuff unless I know I can remove the lock.