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peter_d_shermantoday at 3:53 PM0 repliesview on HN

I don't use MacOS.

I don't use MacOS because it is not Open Source.

I don't use Windows.

I used Windows extensively in the past, but I don't use it in 2026, because it is not Open Source.

Anytime you're dealing with a closed source OS, you're dealing with the following things:

1) Extra time/effort/complexity to make your programs work correctly.

2) Extra time/effort/complexity to make your already working working programs keep working through OS version updates, upgrades, patches, etc., etc.

This article (AI written, not AI written, I don't care) describes something that is overly complex (proof that you don't have and/or cannot access the source code of the underlying operating system) and something which could potentially fail when Apple releases its next OS or OS upgrade...

If you switch to an Open Source operating system (and I'm not trying to shill for Linux here -- OpenBSD, etc., any open source Operating System could work too), then most of these problems will disappear -- or at least be reduced rather significantly.

But what I'm most concerned about is the complexity...

Now, you're welcome to engineer whatever additional complexity above Apple's stack -- many companies do this and are more than willing to pay the price in additional time, resources, programmers, tech people handling whatever issues arise, as they arise.

I'm not against Apple -- I think their products have beautiful aesthetics, and every company, every producer of physical products on the planet could take a lesson from their design teams. Their products are absolutely stunningly visually appealing!

But Apple in turn, could take a lesson from Linux and every other open source OS on the planet.

I personally will not develop for any Apple product unless and until Apple open sources their OS'es.

If code that I write coincidentally runs on an Apple product, hey that's a happy coincidence! Yay!

But I never expect it to, and I never expect to keep working across OS versions and upgrades.

If anyone thinks I'm being unfair to Apple, then I'll state for the record that I have the exact same expectations (or negative expectations, as the case may be!) about Microsoft Windows!

Closed source OS'es lead to complexity, work-arounds ("oh no, API call <abc> isn't working the way we thought it would under these conditions -- well, use this work-around and call API <xyz> with this unnecessary and overly complex data structure after making 3 other unnecessary API calls and then you need to do the following additional steps..."), and software breaking over time over OS version upgrades, updates, patches, and the like.

On the one hand, I'm very glad that this article is bringing micro VM's to Apple.

That's a good idea!

(But on the other hand, I have to ask if the complexity is worth it... but I'm not the guy who pays these guys' salaries or the future support guys' salaries, so I can't determine if it is or isn't, if the trade-off is worth it!)

On the positive side though, bringing Micro VM's to Apple is a good idea, at least in its purest idea form ("we want to add functionality X to platform Y" -- there's nothing wrong with the intention to add value to something -- in fact, quite the opposite! The whole of Western Civilization is based on that idea!)