Developing x86 apps on ARM with VS Code
Using Visual Studio Code remotes to develop on a different CPU architecture
With Apple transitioning all Macs to Apple Silicon in these months, there’s certainly a lot of momentum for bringing ARM-based computing to consumers… and also developers. The list of devices that are now running on CPUs based on the ARM architecture, as opposed to the x86 of Intel and AMD chips, is getting longer by the day. It includes things like:
- Small single-boards computers like Raspberry Pi’s (have you seen the new “PC-in-a-keyboard” Raspberry Pi 400?)
- A number of Chromebook laptops
- Devices running Windows 10 on ARM, like the Surface Pro X
ARM-based CPUs have gone a long way in just few years (just compare a Raspberry Pi model 1 with the newest model 4!) and are now serious everyday development machines too.
However, when switching our development platform to ARM, we need to look at the potential impacts on our workflows.
The issues
I primarily build web applications with back-end services that are designed to run on a x86 Linux server, mostly within a Docker container. Chances are that you’re doing the same: in fact, Linux running on x86 chips is one of the…
