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macOS VMs near-native speed & Why Windows has TMP and TEMP - Hacker News (May 2, 2026)
Published 2 weeks, 5 days ago
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-Tests show macOS VMs on Apple silicon are near-native speed, but need enough disk to update
-Why Windows Has Both TMP and TEMP Variables—and Why Neither Is Definitively Correct
-Bruin Data releases DAC, an open-source dashboard-as-code tool with semantic layer and AI-assisted authoring
-MLJAR Studio Promotes Fully Local, Private AI for Data Analysis and ML Workflows
-Texas Instruments launches TI-84 Evo with faster performance and redesigned interface
-SimplePDF launches Copilot demo for chatting with and filling PDF forms
-dotcl Updates Bring Common Lisp to .NET with Cross-Platform CIL Compilation
-Piruetas launches as a minimalist, privacy-first journal with export and self-hosting
Episode Transcript
macOS VMs near-native speed
First up, a reality check—in a good way—for anyone who relies on macOS virtualization on Apple silicon. The Eclectic Light Company revisited VM performance using macOS 26.4.1, “Tahoe,” on an M4 Pro Mac mini, and the results are surprisingly close to native in the places people actually feel day to day.
CPU single-core performance in a VM landed in the high nineties relative to the host, and GPU Metal performance was similarly close. In plain terms, that suggests a lot of everyday macOS work in a VM—apps, UI responsiveness, many dev workflows—can feel a lot like running on bare metal.
The catch is AI acceleration. The virtualized Neural Engine performed dramatically worse than the host in tests that target that hardware. The impli
- KrispCall: Agentic Cloud Telephony - https://try.krispcall.com/tad
- Lindy is your ultimate AI assistant that proactively manages your inbox - https://try.lindy.ai/tad
- Discover the Future of AI Audio with ElevenLabs - https://try.elevenlabs.io/tad
Support The Automated Daily directly:
Buy me a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/theautomateddaily
Today's topics:
macOS VMs near-native speed - Tests on Apple silicon with macOS 26.4.1 “Tahoe” show virtualization can hit near-native CPU and GPU performance, but Neural Engine results lag, shaping AI workload choices.
Why Windows has TMP and TEMP - Raymond Chen traces TMP vs TEMP to MS-DOS history and Windows API quirks, explaining why compatibility keeps both environment variables alive across apps.
Dashboards-as-code with semantic layer - Bruin Data’s open-source DAC brings “dashboard-as-code” using YAML and TSX plus a reusable semantic layer for metrics, improving reviewability, consistency, and SQL generation.
Common Lisp targeting .NET runtime - Dotcl compiles ANSI Common Lisp to .NET CIL, enabling cross-platform Lisp images and tight interoperability with modern .NET frameworks like ASP.NET Core and MAUI.
Self-hosted private daily journaling - Piruetas is a minimalist, privacy-first journal that’s self-hostable, telemetry-free by design, and focused on data portability with exports and shareable links.
-Tests show macOS VMs on Apple silicon are near-native speed, but need enough disk to update
-Why Windows Has Both TMP and TEMP Variables—and Why Neither Is Definitively Correct
-Bruin Data releases DAC, an open-source dashboard-as-code tool with semantic layer and AI-assisted authoring
-MLJAR Studio Promotes Fully Local, Private AI for Data Analysis and ML Workflows
-Texas Instruments launches TI-84 Evo with faster performance and redesigned interface
-SimplePDF launches Copilot demo for chatting with and filling PDF forms
-dotcl Updates Bring Common Lisp to .NET with Cross-Platform CIL Compilation
-Piruetas launches as a minimalist, privacy-first journal with export and self-hosting
Episode Transcript
macOS VMs near-native speed
First up, a reality check—in a good way—for anyone who relies on macOS virtualization on Apple silicon. The Eclectic Light Company revisited VM performance using macOS 26.4.1, “Tahoe,” on an M4 Pro Mac mini, and the results are surprisingly close to native in the places people actually feel day to day.
CPU single-core performance in a VM landed in the high nineties relative to the host, and GPU Metal performance was similarly close. In plain terms, that suggests a lot of everyday macOS work in a VM—apps, UI responsiveness, many dev workflows—can feel a lot like running on bare metal.
The catch is AI acceleration. The virtualized Neural Engine performed dramatically worse than the host in tests that target that hardware. The impli