Rosetta 2 support discontinuation notice

Developers have had five years to update their apps to a Universal, or Silicon native only. Six by the time Rosetta 2 is dropped. So, ask them what the heck they're waiting for. They should have transitioned at least two years ago.

If they never update their apps, then critical software will have to stay on an older Mac. Or, if on a new Mac without Rosetta 2, run an older version of macOS in a VM that does have Rosetta 2.

runningCode wrote:

Reading through the replies it really shows that some are developers and som aren't :).

I’d rephrase that as developers with experience from the times before the x86 hegemony, and developers that have gone through architectural ports before, and those that have not.

Architectures can and do end.

x86-64 is ending at Apple, with the arrival of macOS 28 in 2027.

Those of y’all that haven’t experienced architectural shifts, yeah, this can sometimes be a bumpy ride.

Given the current wobbling at Intel, a company singularly unable to create a successor architecture for x86-64, who knows what will happen with x86 more generally, too.

But there will be x86-64 boxes available for purchase in 2028, so you will have choices for replacing your Mac.

As for Rosetta 2, log your feedback with Apple.

Some background:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/06/apple-details-the-end-of-intel-mac-support-and-a-phaseout-for-rosetta-2/

And current (20.3.2) releases of Parallels Desktop Pro now have very early support for X86_64 applications running within Apple Silicon Guests on like architecture hosts and thus probably eliminating the need for Rosetta 2 on those guests. Those are my words as there is no confirmation yet that Rosetta 2 can be eliminated from those guests. Also, some future release of Parallels has been stated to drop support for Monterey as a host.

At present (2025) subscription rates for Parallels Desktop Pro, that works out to about $10/month.

No one here knows about individual game developers plans for Apple Silicon ports. You will need to ask them, or retain an older Intel Mac (as has been suggested) that cannot run Tahoe, but can run your older games.

I actually agree with cutekids100. Docker and similar containers evolved while Macs were running intel processors. Rosetta 2 allowed those containers to continue working.

The apps in those containers are not Mac apps, and the vendors are not in the Apple Silicon re-build loop, so they are not going to port them.

Where I work, there are a lot of users using these containers to do their jobs.

It would be nice if Apple continued to maintain Rosetta 2 for this segment of the computing population.

If maintaining intel Mac app support is a problem, I can see the argument to stop that, but if it can be kept with little difficulty, it would be nice.

BobHarris wrote:

I actually agree with cutekids100. Docker and similar containers evolved while Macs were running intel processors. Rosetta 2 allowed those containers to continue working.

The apps in those containers are not Mac apps, and the vendors are not in the Apple Silicon re-build loop, so they are not going to port them.

Where I work, there are a lot of users using these containers to do their jobs.

It would be nice if Apple continued to maintain Rosetta 2 for this segment of the computing population.

If maintaining intel Mac app support is a problem, I can see the argument to stop that, but if it can be kept with little difficulty, it would be nice.

After all is said and gone

Apple is Apple

What more can be said

arseniy1251 wrote:

For me, personally it just means R.I.P. Apple. I just have to run bunch of software that’s on life support and has no Apple silicone support and likely won’t ever have it. I’d still buy a hardware if I could run Linux on it (dualboot not VM), but even that is not really an option anymore.

Apple hasn’t been catering to Windows or Linux folks for a while, nor for folks that need to run older software, so do use whatever works best for your needs.

Asahi is moving forward with Apple silicon support (and Fedora remix), but whether that works for the needs of any particular existing Linux environment?

Even Microsoft eventually walks away from the oldest and most problematic Windows app stuff, and they have some of the longest support / slowest API/ABI upgrade cycles.

Enterprise can be yet slower to update or upgrade, but even they eventually break and update. Or more commonly, they replace. That might be on a twenty or thirty year timeline for a factory replacement, and they do usually plan for spares and ongoing service and critical updates, but that replacement eventually happens.

Y’all can send your Apple Rosetta feedback to: Product Feedback - Apple

Nothing new there

For those who had transitioned from the Apple Motorola PPC to the Apple Intel machines

In those days Apple was so kind to include the original Rosetta that allowed using PPC Encoded application on the Intel units

The original Rosetta was introduced in 2006 and was eventually dropped with the release of Mac OS X Lion (10.7) in 2011.

That was four years to allow Developers to rework their software for Intel

In effect what is going to happen is a repeat of history

My personal about this issue is that today I have no remaining PowerPC/Intel universal apps sunning on my M1 Studio Max. They are long gone and I saw no obligation on Apple’s part to continue support. I lay any controversy at the feet of developers who refuse to keep their software current. If certain Intel only apps have been abandoned, orphaned or otherwise have had development ceased that's not Apple’s problem. Rosetta 2 was absolutely necessary for the transition and Apple has provided tools to transcode to Apple Silicon. Developers have had plenty of time to move to Apple Silicon.

We all have our favorite software we’ve been using and think nothing can replace it or do the job better but that’s almost always not true. There are modern alternatives.

Reading through the replies it really shows that some are developers and som aren't :).

Yes, Apple is Apple and Apple can do whatever they want with Apple products and resources. But. Apple, and end Mac in particular wouldn't be what it is without the support and usage of developers.

There was a time when Steve Jobs stood on the stage and proclaimed that the Mac should be the best platform there is for developers.

Dropping the Rosetta 2 support will as many have noted, cause major issues for developers that rely on development towards other platforms. You can love Apple Silicon all day long, it really is a wonderful architecture and product, but servers where you deploy services doesn't run Apple Silicon (sure there are some extremely rare niches that never will be mainstream).

Not being able to develop to and test under production like circumstances will force developers (such as myself) to move from macOS on my professional machine and that will lead to an incentive to move my other environments as well, it's just simpler to have was few different platforms in your life as possible; this is where Apple was excelled up to this point.

They could make Rosetta 2 into a product and charge you for it, that would be fine. But it's just sad to kill such a great product.

There will always be a certain group who caterwauls about this sort of thing, claiming they are entitled to perpetual support and bellowing about ‘planned obsolescence’. It’s like death and taxes. We all had our favorite goto app that got orphaned by change and the developer either couldn’t or wouldn’t update their code. Life goes on.

Long semi-sad story follows. 🙂

I was doing a lot of testing with Windows 11 ARM in VMware (also Parallels and VirtualBox), in the attempt to get the dongle protected ProfileMaker 5 running. In all cases, the now ancient Intel apps ran in Win 11 ARM just fine. But in none of the virtual machines could I get the OS to recognize the dongle. And without it, the PM5 apps run in demo mode.

This worked without any issue at all with Windows 10 or 11 Intel on a 2018 Intel mini, even though I had to use a much older dongle driver in the VM than the one that's supposed to be for Win 10 or 11.

There is a macOS driver that works as expected, but it only activates i1Profiler in macOS. The Mac version of PM5 dead ended in Snow Leopard, so it's impossible to run in any newer macOS as it's PPC software. And while you can tell Windows to connect to the recognized dongle in the VM, the Intel version of PM5 running in the VM still doesn't see it. None of the drivers I can download, older or the latest, work in the VM.

Thales is now the owner of the driver software. It's changed hands a few times over the years. And these people are really annoying. When you open the HTML 'readme' file, it states the latest drivers for Windows 11 ARM 24H2 is supported. Okay, so why does it still not work? It isn't until you dig deeper you find the support is different within a VM:

Gee, thanks a lot! A Sentinel HL dongle is what I have. Any particular reason to exclude these older HASP keys? And only when it's in a VM?

So I went to UTM. Window 7 64 bit worked, but was slower than a drunken snail, and I had to uninstall the Mac HASP driver before the guest OS could connect to the dongle. Installing and uninstalling the Mac driver got old really fast when you need to keep switching between i1Profiler and the PM5 Profile Editor.

In the end, I found instructions for dumping the dongle data so Windows XP and PM5 thinks the dongle exists, but runs without any actual Windows drivers installed. Yes, this would probably be considered illegal, but I still have and own the dongle, so it's not like I've stolen anything I don't already legally own. Now I can have i1Profiler in macOS and PM5 in Win XP running at the same time. And being a comparatively small footprint OS, Win XP actually runs pretty well in UTM.

You have more patience than I would have had in that circumstance. Windows XP security is essentially a submarine with a screen door, although I have read that the US Air Traffic Control is still running Windows 95 with diskettes. Maybe that is why I refuse to fly anywhere…

cutekids100 wrote:

This will be devastating for people who rely on x86_64 Docker containers and people who rely on running Windows apps using CrossOver! I strongly oppose the removal of Rosetta 2.

Apple does what is best for Apple

They have worked that way in the past and I do not see this changing any time in the near future