Is the required software for electronics available on macOS? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: Cromulent
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 20, 2024, 05:36:00 pm
content: I only have Apple hardware. A Mac Studio and a MacBook Air and my question is will I have problems due to missing software not being available on macOS? As I'm new to all of this I don't know what I need to look for. I'm just curious if I should get an Intel x86_64 machine running Linux or Windows 11 for electronics work or whether I'll be fine with a Mac.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2024, 05:42:46 pm
content: The range of tools available in the Mac world is smaller, but from what I can see there is plenty to get you started. I wouldn't run out and buy new hardware and start learning a new software environment until you run into something that you just can't find in your world. If you get really deep into the hobby I suspect you will add a Linux and/or Windows box to your toolset, but no reason to leap into that at the start.

author: Cromulent
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 20, 2024, 05:44:25 pm
content: Awesome. Thank you so much. That is great. I'll use what I have for the moment and see where it takes me.

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2024, 05:47:49 pm
content: is parallels or boot camp an option to run windows on the mac?

author: Cromulent
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 20, 2024, 06:23:09 pm
content: Yeah I have Parallels and VMware Fusion but assumed that the Windows they run is for AArch64 and not x86_64 and would therefore cause problems for software that isn't ARM native.

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2024, 06:52:59 pm
content: Not particularly 'electronics' software but MATLAB runs native on a MacBook Pro M2.LTspice (siimulator) might work and it is highly regarded. It's free so try it out.

author: Cromulent
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 20, 2024, 07:02:15 pm
content: Thank you. I'll have a look.

author: Benta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2024, 07:12:23 pm
content: Start with KiCAD. It's available for Mac.

author: wasedadoc
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2024, 07:29:32 pm
content: "required software"? Many of us learned electronics and were a significant fraction through professional careers before personal computers were invented.

author: rstofer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 21, 2024, 12:44:20 am
content: Some of us did the entire program with a slide rule. I still carry the powers of 10 in my head an do the math to just a couple of decimal places. I just want an 'about' answer.

author: J-R
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 21, 2024, 04:05:18 am
content: Typical round numbers for Windows vs. macOS market share are 70% and 15% so most test equipment software is Windows-only. And while a lot of devices can be found with standard ethernet coms, a lot of devices that you will probably want don't have it.It's quite trivial and inexpensive to snag a used x86 Windows machine, so I don't see the point in avoiding picking one up. (If you already have a Studio and Air, money doesn't seem to be an issue?) The absolute minimum spec I'd suggest would be a quad core CPU, 16GB RAM and a 256GB SSD. That will be enough to run Windows 10/11 as well as an x86 Linux virtual machine. I also think the knowledge you'll gain by having that available will be 100% worth the time investment to get it set up.Also, you don't need a dedicated keyboard/mouse/monitor for the Windows box, just use Remote Desktop to connect to it from your Apple computers.

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 23, 2024, 10:25:27 pm
content: I do all the design on a Mac laptop (Apple silicon M2), including schematic, PCB layout, FGPA/Verilog, MCU firmware, host software, and 3D mechanical design and printing. It's a great machine for engineering.

author: mayor
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2024, 09:30:47 am
content: You can start with the mac and a Windows VM for software that requires Windows. I've been doing that as a hobbyist for years, and haven't had a situation where that wasn't sufficient.

author: Moriambar
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 07, 2024, 01:24:31 pm
content: I've been using a mac-only setup for at least 12 years. Never needed windows, but I'm still a beginner btw.Cheers!

author: InvisibleMan
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2024, 01:55:13 pm
content: As a Mac user, I'm also very interested in this question. One tip I learned recently is that as a lot of modern test equipment can be controlled with SCPI commands. It is very easy to send these over your LAN from the Mac terminal with no additional software if you just need to send a few specific commands (for example for calibration).Just start a terminal session, and then use the netcat command with the IP address and port number:nc 192.168.1.100 5025Then in the resulting session type the SCPI commands you need (e.g. *IDN?)Close the session with Control-C to return to the terminal session.Should be easy enough to write SCPI scripts too if needed.

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2024, 02:07:41 pm
content: Quote from: Cromulent on June 20, 2024, 06:23:09 pmThere's also Crossover (Wine+Rosetta 2). Of course that's a lot of layers for things to go wrong with.

author: Midphase
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 07, 2024, 03:24:52 pm
content: There is a lot of development happening on MacOS. Plenty of tools from Wolfram Alpha to KiKad to LTSpice to Arduino IDE and so on.Ideally...do get yourself familiar with the Terminal and the command line basics.

author: westfw
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2024, 02:05:02 am
content: I use a Mac for most thing (but I have an x86 Mac, so that might make things easier. I'm not sure of the state of x86 emulation on Mn.) A Mac runs a lot of unix/linux-like Open Source Software (including gcc compilers for everything, and assorted IDEs), and I use VirtualBox to run Windows and Linux, when necessary.OTOH, a used less-than-SoTA windows laptop or desktop can be very cheap, and probably worth having. The performance requirements for most EE-type stuff is not too high, so nearly anything will do. You can even remotely access the Windows PC from your Mac using assorted tools and network their filesystems, if you want.

author: agehall
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2024, 04:50:05 am
content: Quote from: InvisibleMan on July 07, 2024, 01:55:13 pmYou can use telnet on pretty much any platform out of the box for the same thing.

author: nonlinearschool
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 11, 2024, 08:24:14 am
content: Has anyone mentioned PlayonMac? I use that and PlayonLinux plus WINE. I have yet to find Electronics software that I can not get to work on the Mac... or Linux. with Virtualbox, or Parallels Mac Users can run most anything., today

author: jonpaul
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 11, 2024, 08:35:32 am
content: Try W10/11 VM for MAC.KiCAD is free as are many others.See Altium for MAC options.j