To be clear, the Intel version of VLC runs just fine on Apple’s new M1 Macs. Of course, you’re not going to notice this with apps like Microsoft Word or Twitter, since these don’t exactly tax the system’s resources, however the new M1 version of VLC provides a nice example of what a native M1 app can truly do.

In fact, how well this works is actually a strong testament as to how blazingly fast Apple’s new M1 chip really is, and most users don’t find running Intel apps on their M1 Macs a problem simply because most of them run just as well as they did before what they don’t realize is that they can actually run much faster. Although Apple’s Rosetta 2 translation layer does a surprisingly good job of allowing Intel x86-based apps to run on the new M1 ARM architecture, it still adds overhead that’s not necessary with apps that are natively compiled for the M1.