App Profile: UTM SE: Retro PC emulator

SeaboundAvian

Rating: 4/5

I spent all day trying out various setups like Windows 11 and XP, MacOS 9, and Ubuntu Server. UTM CAN boot them, but since Apple does not allow most apps to use JIT compilation, they run as slow as possible. I booted up the preinstalled solitaire in Windows 7, took about 5 minutes to open. Tried to move a card, took about 5 minutes to update. The only thing that ran with a little bit of usability was Ubuntu Server, which has no GUI. UTM SE has potential, but Apple is holding everything back, per usual. Guess someone doesn’t want to eat into their Mac sales…

SdwHwk

Rating: 3/5

I am excited for this project, but it still has a ways to go. It does work, but very slowly, at least on an iPad Pro 12.9 Gen 4. Very slow to boot and it is so slow I can’t even boot into the pre-built Linux GUIs. I created a fresh Linux VM without a GUI and while slow, it was easy to setup (took over 9+ hours to install Ubuntu Server). But even in terminal, I cannot log in because of the slowness. As of this writing, I’m logging in and after entering the password, it just sits there. I’m 10 minutes in and still haven’t gotten a prompt. Just a blinking cursor. So while this is a very interesting project, it still needs some work in the speed department. This may be faster on the latest and greatest, but I do not have that (except for the iPhone 15 Pro, which has way too small of a screen for me to test out, but I may amend this review if I do.) Developers, do keep up the good work, though. This is a very useful project for someone who would like to learn Linux, but wants the portability of a tablet. I’m thinking like a student. Also I like to note it is a battery hog. Because it is so slow, I have to keep it plugged in or the iPad would be drained.

_Skythunder

Rating: 5/5

This is a great app. I’ve actually gotten into emulate MS-DOS, Windows (up to xp), macOS 9 and more! So it’s a B tier app in my opinion. It’s got its ups and downs, but it’s great. I can see how some people might have trouble using this app because I actually had a lot of trouble trying to get macOS 9 to even boot. but this is just the truth about emulation and virtualisation. It’s very complicated. It’s got a few things to work out but I see how the developers are trying their best to make this app even stay up on the App Store, so truly a great app it deserves five stars and a donation. PS, I hope Apple can allow JIT and the original UTM and not just the slow edition because if you didn’t know SE stands for slow edition.