Docker & node.js on Apple Silicon! Hooray!
If you, like me, do Javascript development on a MacBook Pro, and rely on Docker and Node.js, then you, like me, were distressed to hear that neither Docker nor Node.js worked on the ARM-based Apple M1 chip. This short post is here to let you know, if you hadn’t already heard, that the problems have been solved!
In April 2021, this Docker blog post announced Docker Desktop for Mac on Apple silicon. The feature was, the blog post says, “by far our most upvoted roadmap item ever.”
As regards Node.js, I don’t know if the information that it didn’t work was false to start with, or if people just figured out how to make it work, but plenty of articles have popped up explaining how to do it; for example, this post from Justin Wride right here on Medium in January 2021. Here are a couple of other references, if you don’t care to Google it yourself: Running Node.js Natively on Apple Silicon; Installing nodejs on macOS Apple Silicon (M1).
If you are using Docker, chances are that you want to run multiple Docker containers simultaneously, and you were trés relieved when MacBook Pro finally broke the 16GB memory barrier with the 16" MacBook Pro at the end of 2019. (And that it resolved the butterfly-keybord fiasco.) Perhaps relevied enough to spring $5k for a model with 64GB memory and 4TB SSD. (Or have your company spring for it—though I bought my own because I never again want to go through that painful exercise of having to turn my laptop back into a company!) So now I’ve got to wait for a 64GB MBP model with Apple silicon. It is said to be pretty much ready to go, and will most probably be released before the end of the year, maybe sooner. Getting less than two years’ work out of a $5k computer seems a shame, but hey, it’s only a few percent of my annual salary. I will convince myself that the increased performance will boost my productivity so much that the boss will give me a raise that more than covers the cost of the computer!
Please add you comments if you have any experience with Docker and Node.js on M1. Thanks!
ADDENDUM — VMware Fusion too!
Sept 22, 2021: Announcement: VMware Fusion for Apple silicon Public Tech Preview Now Available https://blogs.vmware.com/teamfusion/2021/09/fusion-for-m1-public-tech-preview-now-available.html
… but mostly for Linux VMs, it doesn’t officially support Windows VMs, but…
Running Windows 11 Arm inside VMware Fusion on Apple Silicon (m1) https://blogs.vmware.com/teamfusion/2021/09/fusion-for-m1-public-tech-preview-now-available.html
