State of Ryzen Software Compatibility for Developers

[SurrealGambit]

Hi all,

I'm looking to build a very capable development workstation (as I previously posted about), ideally with the 3900X (or XT when it comes out), but I have some concerns about software compatibility. The main reason I run macOS is because it's POSIX and mainly because of that, development is so much easier with a bunch of supported linux-targeted tools (that are generally hacky at best on Windows). From my reading, the current issues with macOS on Ryzen are A) Virtual Machines that use Intel specific virtualization tech (VMware Fusion/Android Studio Simulator/Docker by default), B) Matlab/Mathematica, and C) Adobe Apps (but frankly I don't care about this at all).

I'm fine with having to use Docker Machine/Toolbox but I'm concerned about Matlab/Mathematica support as those are very important to me. They're not quite "mission critical" as I could surely dual boot into windows and run them there (or much more slowly on my old MacBook pro), but if I couldn't get them working reliably, that'd be a huge downside for me as I use both for projects/classes from time to time.

I'm also concerned about hidden problems down the road/ones that haven't been reported yet because Ryzen Hackintoshes aren't widespread by any means. I really don't want to go for, say, the i9-10900K which will cost more, be slower, and draw much more power, but I also want to make sure I can do the work I need to do on the computer. Are there any developers here that could maybe share their experience and problems (if any) they encountered?

 

[Aluveitie]

I'm using my Ryzentosh daily for software development, mostly Scala/Akka and deploying on remote machines. So far I did not encounter any roadblocks for my work.

If you want to avoid compatibility issues or run into an unsolvable issue you can always go the Proxintosh route (virtualize MacOS with only minimal performance impact). Fabiosun has a great step-by-step guide for that.

 

[Vlad Vovk]

Hi) I am front-end dev. Use Ryzantosh for developing SPA, PWA. For docker, I use this solution. It works very very good for me.
But if you really need a lot of apps that are only partly supported in Ryzentosh, maybe you can try with intel?

 

[FriedEngineer]

Hi all,

I'm looking to build a very capable development workstation (as I previously posted about), ideally with the 3900X (or XT when it comes out), but I have some concerns about software compatibility. The main reason I run macOS is because it's POSIX and mainly because of that, development is so much easier with a bunch of supported linux-targeted tools (that are generally hacky at best on Windows). From my reading, the current issues with macOS on Ryzen are A) Virtual Machines that use Intel specific virtualization tech (VMware Fusion/Android Studio Simulator/Docker by default), B) Matlab/Mathematica, and C) Adobe Apps (but frankly I don't care about this at all).

I'm fine with having to use Docker Machine/Toolbox but I'm concerned about Matlab/Mathematica support as those are very important to me. They're not quite "mission critical" as I could surely dual boot into windows and run them there (or much more slowly on my old MacBook pro), but if I couldn't get them working reliably, that'd be a huge downside for me as I use both for projects/classes from time to time.

I've got almost perfect Matlab functionality. It's a bit of a chore to get it working but I'll see if I can resurrect my posts on how do get it working from the old version of this forum.

Edit: I've posted the instructions here: https://forum.amd-osx.com/index.php?threads/how-to-make-matlab-mostly-functional.822/

 

[RyzenPro]

I'm also concerned about hidden problems down the road/ones that haven't been reported

Tough decision huh. Well, there's no simple answer to this but a leap of faith. I been using AMD hackintosh since Phenom X4. yes there were drawbacks, but now OpenCore has leveled the playing field in Vanilla hackintoshing, meaning as long as your HW+SW configuration is sufficient enough, I think you'll be okay