Visual Studio Code M1 Apple

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Visual Studio Code on macOS Installation. Download Visual Studio Code for macOS. Open the browser's download list and locate the downloaded archive. Select the 'magnifying glass' icon to open the archive in Finder. Drag Visual Studio Code.app to the Applications folder, making it available in the macOS Launchpad.

Few will notice the differences between M1 and Intel for daily usage, even during this Rosetta 2 period. Thoughts around.NET focused development on an M1 device are generally positive. The development time experience of writing and compiling code is uneventful and yawn-inducing (in the right way – it 'just works'!). Visual Studio Code is free and available on your favorite platform - Linux, macOS, and Windows. Download Visual Studio Code to experience a redefined code editor, optimized for building and debugging modern web and cloud applications. Many of you folks requested how VS Code is running on the new Apple Silicon chips, and I am happy to report that everything is running smoothly so far.

Microsoft has released a new version of source-code editor Visual Studio Code that runs natively on Apple Silicon Macs like the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini models with Apple M1 chips.

The change came in Visual Studio Code 1.54 (now 1.54.1, thanks to a bug fix update), which is available as a universal 64-bit binary, as is standard for apps with Apple Silicon support. That said, Microsoft also offers downloads for x86-64 and Arm64 versions specifically, if desired.

There are no differences in features between the two versions, of course. And the non-Apple Silicon version worked just fine on M1 Macs previously via Rosetta, but Microsoft says M1 users can expect a few optimizations with the new binaries:

We are happy to announce our first release of stable Apple Silicon builds this iteration. Users on Macs with M1 chips can now use VS Code without emulation with Rosetta, and will notice better performance and longer battery life when running VS Code. Thanks to the community for self-hosting with the Insiders build and reporting issues early in the iteration.

Other key features in Visual Studio Code 1.54 include the ability to retain terminal processes on window reload, performance improvements in the Windows version, product icon themes, improvements when viewing Git history timeline entries, and various accessibility improvements.

This is the latest in a slow march of productivity and power user apps that have launched native Apple Silicon versions, such as Adobe Photoshop. But many popular apps are still not native, including Visual Studio Code's IDE sibling Visual Studio 2019 for Mac.

However, native Apple Silicon support is expected to come to Visual Studio 2019 for Mac with .NET 6, which is expected to ship in November. The first .NET 6 preview was distributed last month.

Many makers of development and creative production software have committed to releasing Apple Silicon versions of apps, including Adobe and Unity. But others, like Autodesk, haven't made much noise about Apple Silicon support yet.

Apple is expected to shift its entire Mac lineup to the new architecture by the end of 2022. Reports citing people familiar with Apple's plans have indicated that more Apple Silicon-based MacBook Pros are coming this year, as well as significant redesigns for both the iMac and MacBook Air, which will also have Apple Silicon chips.

Docker, a popular multi-platform application used by software developers, has released a version that runs natively on Apple Silicon hardware, including Macs released with Apple's custom-designed M1 chip.

The M1 chip uses the ARM instruction set and cannot natively run software that was designed to run on the x86 architecture that the Intel processors in previously released Macs used. Though the previous version of Docker did work via Apple's Rosetta solution, the introduction of an M1-native version of Docker contributes to a closing gap for developers concerned about running their entire suite of tools in an optimal way.

Visual Studio M1 Mac

It follows the release of M1 versions of Homebrew, Visual Studio Code, and other developer tools and applications. But some gaps remain—for example, Microsoft's Visual Studio 2019 IDE (which is distinct from the comparatively lightweight Visual Studio Code) has not been updated.

Docker achieved popularity among developers because it enabled relatively easy use of containers, wherein multiple applications could be developed and tested on a single machine, sharing the operating system's kernel without interfering with one another.

The public release of the Apple Silicon version of Docker Desktop for Mac was installed 45,000 times in a technical preview, and Docker's press release says that developers participating in that preview said the application ran 'faster and quieter' than it did before the M1 update. The press release included the following statement from Docker Captain Ajeet Singh Raina:

Visual Studio Code M1 Apple Download

To the many developers eager to know if they can use the latest Macs as a dev machine with Docker, the wait is over... Docker Desktop for Mac [Apple Silicon] will let you do everything you’ve been able to do on a Mac already, and you’ll be able to do it faster and with less noise.

Visual Studio Code M1 Apple

A blog post on the Docker website says that M1 support 'quickly became by far our most upvoted roadmap item ever' after it was first requested.

That said, Apple has only released a few Macs that include the M1, and all of them are lower-end machines with limitations like low maximum RAM configurations, support for only one external monitor at a time, and fewer Thunderbolt ports than high-end machines that still have Intel chips—meaning most of the Apple Silicon Macs that would be most suitable for developers have yet to be released.

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When they are, they might not have the M1 but may instead feature related chips with performance or feature improvements over the M1. There's no reason to expect that the changes made to Docker and other M1-native software won't work just as well on that new chip, should it arrive.

Visual Studio Code M1 Apple Store

The full release notes for Docker Desktop 3.3.1 with Apple Silicon support can be found at the Docker Docs website.