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Microsoft releases M1-native Visual Studio Code for developing apps

Microsoft's app development software Visual Studio Code has been updated to run natively on Apple Silicon M1.

Microsoft's long-standing app development software, Visual Studio Code, has now been released a native M1 version that no longer requires Apple's Rosetta 2 to run.

"We are happy to announce our first release of stable Apple Silicon builds [with] this iteration," says Microsoft in a blog post about Visual Studio Code 1.54.1. "Users on Macs with M1 chips can now use VS Code without emulation with Rosetta, and will notice better performance and longer battery life when running VS Code."

Microsoft thanks "the community for self-hosting with the Insiders [test] build" and for how they were "reporting issues early in the iteration."

By default, downloading the macOS edition of Visual Studio Code gets a Universal version which contains both Intel and Apple Silicon code. However, Microsoft has also made available "architecture-specific builds for Intel or Apple Silicon, which are smaller downloads compared to the Universal package."

It's now three months since the first Apple Silicon Macs shipped, and eight since the Developer Transition Kit was released. Developers are steadily converting their apps to take advantage of the M1 processor, but there is still some considerable way to go.