Latest macOS 11.3 beta might see Rosetta 2 removed
A huge part of Apple’s success in replacing the Intel processors in the latest Macs with Arm-based Apple Silicon is Rosetta 2. It allows for near-seamless translation of x86 apps to allow them to run on the Apple M1, but it seems that Rosetta 2 might be getting the axe, at least in some regions.
Apple is removing Rosetta from Macs during updates in certain countries in Mac 11.3 beta 3. Maybe this is due to legal issues? “Rosetta will be removed upon installing this update” “Rosetta is no longer available in your region. Applications requiring Rosetta will no longer urn” pic.twitter.com/NmsjXOwPvP
— Steve Moser (@SteveMoser) March 3, 2021
The latest macOS 11.3 beta that’s available for developers to test revealed the following strings: “Rosetta will be removed upon installing this update.” and “Rosetta is no longer available in this region. Applications requiring Rosetta will no longer run.”
Rosetta 2 is a key part of what allows Apple users to switch over to Apple Silicon-powered devices without having to find workarounds to their workflow. Without Rosetta 2, users with the new MacBooks and Mac Mini who use x86 apps will have to look for alternatives that are natively written for Arm.
It is reportedly quite easy to recompile software to run natively on the Apple M1, but still there are probably huge libraries of apps that haven’t been recompiled to run on Arm natively.
Apple has allegedly not responded to MacRumors on the reasoning behind the removal of Rosetta 2 nor the regions which are affected.
Pokdepinion: I wonder how many people will have their workflows affected if Rosetta 2 no longer works.
