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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1318513
Developer Proves Windows for ARM Can Run on M1 Macs By Jesse Hollington While most Mac users are quite happy living in entirely in Apple’s macOS ecosystem these days, it’s still a sad reality that for some, running Windows — or at least Windows apps — is a non-negotiable requirement for their Macs. While the need for Mac users to dance on the dark side isn’t nearly as prevalent as it was over a decade ago when Apple first made the big switch to Intel MacBooks, there are still some specific areas where Windows apps either don’t have Mac counterparts at all, or where the native options for Mac users are anemic by comparison. So it’s understandably been a point of concern for some Mac users whether to take the plunge into Apple’s newest M1 chip. While the new ARM-based Apple Silicon is now found in all of the current MacBook Air models, however, at least MacBook Pro and Mac mini customers can still decide whether to purchase an M1 version or the older tried-and-true Intel variants. To be clear, there are also still other advantages to purchasing one of Apple’s Intel MacBooks or the Intel Mac mini right now; Apple’s M1 models all cap out at 2TB SSDs and 16GB RAM, and none offer more than two Thunderbolt / USB ports. On the other hand, the Intel Mac mini can support up to 64GB of RAM, and the Intel MacBook Pro models can handle up to 32GB. Windows on Apple Silicon While it remains unclear whether Windows support will ever officially arrive for Apple’s M1 Macs, there’s no reason that the hardware can’t support the ARM-based version of Windows, and Apple has already pointedly put the responsibility for that on Microsoft’s shoulders, and Microsoft is being non-committal at best right now. However it’s looking more and more like the problem is going to come down to a legal technicality that amounts to whether Microsoft is willing to license Windows for ARM in such a way that it could be used on ARM-based Macs. As things stand right now, Microsoft only offers up the ARM-based version of its operating system for its own Surface tablets and other specific OEMs that develop