Some dots connected for me when thinking about how new Apple Silicon Macs run from the standpoint of common firmware-based tasks (startup modifier keys and whatnot). I was helping a friend install a new 1TB OWC SSD into her Mid 2014 15" MacBook Pro (she had all but completely filled up her stock 512GB drive) and setting up Big Sur afresh on it. She had only had version 10.14.6 of Mojave installed and wasn't on the most recent security patch for it either. After trying to get the Big Sur recovery image to load via Internet Recovery a ton of times and getting an error, it all clicked. Her Mac wasn't able to boot the Internet Recovery image for 11.0.1 because she wasn't on a new enough firmware update, and the only way she was going to get onto a new enough firmware update was to update her Mac either to Mojave with the latest security update, Catalina with the latest security update, or Big Sur itself. Long backstory short, we plugged her old drive back in (via the OWC provided external enclosure), updated the OS, and then Internet Recovery was able to successfully boot the Internet Recovery image for 11.0.1.
Anyway, this story seems to perfectly illustrate the rise and fall of Internet Recovery as a feature as well as explain why Apple has opted to not use it with Apple Silicon Macs at all.
Back in 2011, when Mac OS X Lion was the first version of Mac OS X to not ship on disc (I'm not going to count that really cool thumb drive version you could've bought back then), and when more and more Macs stopped coming with built-in optical drives, it was the perfect alternative to shipping a grey disc with the original release of the Mac operating system specific to that machine.
However, circa Sierra and High Sierra, Apple started baking in UEFI firmware updates to the Mac in with not just major releases, but every single point release update and (for older, but still supported releases) security updates. Then Internet Recovery branched out so that you could have one option with the original OS that came with your computer (or the closest one to it) and one with the most recent OS release. While convenient, I'd imagine this started to conflict with use cases wherein users hadn't updated their Mac to a version of the current (or one of the two previous) operating system containing the firmware needed to boot Internet Recovery to the latest macOS release.
As was the case on my friend's Mid 2014 15" MacBook Pro, I couldn't use Internet Recovery to clean install her to the newest operating system because Apple has made doing so dependent on keeping up with the current firmware releases. Luckily, in her case, we could still boot her old drive, update Mojave to the latest security update (so that the newest firmware compatible with the Internet Recovery image of Big Sur 11.0.1 would install), so we could then clean install Big Sur to her new drive. But, man, what a pain if you're not keeping up with the latest updates! I'd imagine this is the crux of most Internet Recovery complaints now for Intel Macs!
Now, flash forward to the M1 Macs of today, "System Recovery" merely makes it so that your Mac can restore whatever it had on it most recently. This keeps in line with Apple including firmware updates in every macOS update (which they probably deem more important than being able to Internet Recovery to the latest release in the event of a clean install). Plus, it's not like bootable USB installers have stopped working in the case of either Internet Recovery enabled Intel Macs or Apple Silicon Macs.
tl;dr: Apple's priority of injecting firmware updates for Macs with each OS update ultimately conflicted with Internet Recovery's ability to serve up the latest OS release on command, so Apple just came up with an alternative on-board solution in System Recovery to do away with it on Apple Silicon Macs.
Anyway, this story seems to perfectly illustrate the rise and fall of Internet Recovery as a feature as well as explain why Apple has opted to not use it with Apple Silicon Macs at all.
Back in 2011, when Mac OS X Lion was the first version of Mac OS X to not ship on disc (I'm not going to count that really cool thumb drive version you could've bought back then), and when more and more Macs stopped coming with built-in optical drives, it was the perfect alternative to shipping a grey disc with the original release of the Mac operating system specific to that machine.
However, circa Sierra and High Sierra, Apple started baking in UEFI firmware updates to the Mac in with not just major releases, but every single point release update and (for older, but still supported releases) security updates. Then Internet Recovery branched out so that you could have one option with the original OS that came with your computer (or the closest one to it) and one with the most recent OS release. While convenient, I'd imagine this started to conflict with use cases wherein users hadn't updated their Mac to a version of the current (or one of the two previous) operating system containing the firmware needed to boot Internet Recovery to the latest macOS release.
As was the case on my friend's Mid 2014 15" MacBook Pro, I couldn't use Internet Recovery to clean install her to the newest operating system because Apple has made doing so dependent on keeping up with the current firmware releases. Luckily, in her case, we could still boot her old drive, update Mojave to the latest security update (so that the newest firmware compatible with the Internet Recovery image of Big Sur 11.0.1 would install), so we could then clean install Big Sur to her new drive. But, man, what a pain if you're not keeping up with the latest updates! I'd imagine this is the crux of most Internet Recovery complaints now for Intel Macs!
Now, flash forward to the M1 Macs of today, "System Recovery" merely makes it so that your Mac can restore whatever it had on it most recently. This keeps in line with Apple including firmware updates in every macOS update (which they probably deem more important than being able to Internet Recovery to the latest release in the event of a clean install). Plus, it's not like bootable USB installers have stopped working in the case of either Internet Recovery enabled Intel Macs or Apple Silicon Macs.
tl;dr: Apple's priority of injecting firmware updates for Macs with each OS update ultimately conflicted with Internet Recovery's ability to serve up the latest OS release on command, so Apple just came up with an alternative on-board solution in System Recovery to do away with it on Apple Silicon Macs.
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