Overview
In late 2020, Apple released a new generation of Mac computers powered by a custom M1 chip instead of Intel processors. While these new Macs perform well with the majority of the University supported software, not all of the University software is supported on these new Macs.
Details
New Macs powered by Apple's new M1 chip were released in December 2020. This new processor is a custom chip created by Apple, designed to improve performance and battery life. However, it may also cause issues with applications designed to run on Intel processor based Macs. While Apple has developed a method for Intel based applications to be emulated on the new chip using software that you can install on your Mac called Rosetta, not all software can be emulated or run well in this emulation. Apple has provided tools for developers to create Universal versions of their app that will run both on Intel and Apple Silicon, but each software developer is required to update their app to make it Universal. Additionally, at this time, the new processor does not support running Windows in a virtual machine on the Mac.
Below is a list of popular apps used on a regular basis by our community, including our Standard Software, that have been tested so far. If you would like us to include a software program in our testing, please leave a comment below or contact the Help Desk.
Tested and supported apps
- Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Lightroom, etc.)*
- Box Drive*
- CrowdStrike Falcon*
- ClearPass OnGuard
- Cisco AnyConnect
- Google Chrome*
- Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote)*
- Microsoft Remote Desktop*
- Mozilla Firefox*
- Solstice
- Sophos Home
- zoom*
*Universal app, will run natively on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs
Unsupported apps
- Boot Camp
- VMware Fusion
- VMware has announced they are working on supporting M1 Macs, and a beta version will be available this year
- The planned beta version, and likely the final version of VMware Fusion, will not support x86 Windows. Supported Operating Systems will primarily be ARM based Linux distributions. It is unlikely that a traditional Windows virtual machine that allows you to run Windows only applications will be possible on Apple Silicon Macs
Other Limitations
- Support for multiple displays: Macs with an M1 chip can only support one external display. If a second external display is plugged in, it will not be detected
- Macs with an M1 Pro or M1 Max chip can support up to 2 or 4 displays, respectively
See Also
Introducing the next generation of Mac
Do Adobe apps work on Apple computers that use the M1 chip?
If you need to install Rosetta on your Mac