[TUHS] Maintenance mode on AIX

[Liam Proven]

On Wed, 18 Jan 2023 at 18:22, Will Senn <will.senn at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Wow, we're all over the place on this thread.

True!

> I stopped updating my Mac with Mojave.

Me too. I have some irreplaceable 32-bit apps.

> I would prefer my OS to be under my control and secure my information, for me.

I agree.

*But* the thing is this, and I am theorizing here.

Apple is trying to move to Arm-ISA Macs with its own very highly
integrated chipset. This is imposing some issues.

E.g. The M1 Macs can't boot from an external device if the internal
one fails. You can't just put in a USB key and start from it. You
can't just remove a failed drive, replace it, format it, reinstall the
OS and keep going.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/437022/can-apple-silicon-based-mac-boot-from-unauthorized-external-drive

They seem to lack the old 68K/PowerPC/x86 fairly clean separation
between firmware and OS on a disk.

They are, pretty much, the whole computer on a single SOC.

The first SOC was the ARM250: CPU + GPU + memory controller.

Then FPU and bus controllers and interfaces and things moved on board too.

Now, the RAM is on board, and the SSD is also built in if not on the
same die. It is extremely hard to replace/upgrade them, e.g.
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/04/06/m1-mac-ram-and-ssd-upgrades-possible/

In a way the Arm Macs are sort of like iPads with external screens. It
is also notable that there is _still_ no Arm-based Mac Pro: I don't
think they've found a way to make their new architecture as modular,
with external GPUs and an expansion bus. I suspect they won't be able
to and eventually the Intel kit will quietly disappear with no direct
replacement.

So I think that Apple is trying to make the OS as *extremely* robust
and tamper-proof as they can, because if that soldered-in-place disk
gets scrambled or compromised, then the expensive hardware is
basically toast.

I don't like it either and I don't want an Arm-powered Mac for now...
but I sort of understand what they are trying to do, I think.

-- 
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