MacOS on Alemasone

Virtualization on Apple Silicon: Windows, Linux and macOS

Fri, 08 May 2026 16:51:36 +0000

On Macs with Apple chips (from M1 to M5), you can only virtualize ARM systems: Windows 11 for ARM, Linux ARM distributions, and macOS itself. x86 systems run only through emulation, which is much slower. The most useful recent update is that VMware Fusion is free for any use, including in a business environment.

With Apple chips, Boot Camp—which launched Windows directly on the hardware—is gone. Virtual machines remain, and they work well today for two reasons: Windows exists as an ARM version, and its translation layer allows most x86 programs to run anyway.

NTFS, exFAT or APFS: Which File System Should You Choose?

Sat, 06 Sep 2025 16:35:06 +0000

For a USB drive that needs to work on both Mac and Windows, the file system you should choose is exFAT; there are no serious alternatives. For a drive used only with Windows, use NTFS; for one used only with Mac, use APFS; for Linux, use ext4. The old FAT32 is now only used when a specific device requires it, because it cannot accept files larger than 4 GB.

A file system is the way the operating system organizes data on a drive: it decides how files are written, what information is stored about each one, and what the limitations are. If you choose incorrectly, you’ll end up with a drive that your office computer can’t read, or a 6 GB movie that won’t copy over.

Slow Mac Startup: How to Speed Up Your System

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 08:09:37 +0000

If your Mac is taking too long to start up, there’s usually one main reason: too many programs launching at startup. You can check this in System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions, where you can also see hidden processes that apps add without asking you.

An Apple Silicon Mac turns on in a few seconds, so if startup is taking a long time, the problem is rarely hardware. More often, it’s software that has accumulated over the years: sync apps, updaters, and tools installed once and then forgotten.

12 Hidden macOS Features to Boost Your Mac Productivity

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 19:28:20 +0000

macOS is full of features you won’t see until you look for them: no messages announce them and no icons suggest them. Most are tucked away in System Settings, in panels that many people only open to change their wallpaper. I have gathered the most useful ones, from Hot Corners to automations with Automator and Shortcuts.

We start with those you use every day and move up to automations, which save you from repeating the same sequence of clicks twenty times. These tips apply to macOS 26 Tahoe, the current version; on previous versions, almost everything works the same way—only a few menu names might differ.