Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 7.2

A lot of hardware gets Linux support because the hardware manufacturer itself (Intel, AMD, Mediatek, NXP, Marvell, etc) takes responsibility for writing and upstreaming Linux drivers. This is how companies like Lenovo or Dell can offer systems with Linux preinstalled.

My steelman read of that would be that there is a difference between paying Apple a premium to make installing Linux hard vs. paying, say, Framework a premium to make installing Linux easy.

Ummm if repairability is a concern, I’ve got some news to share about your new Macbook.

My MacBook Pro M1 is 5 years old now and the SSD wear level is at 4%. SSD wear is not a problem for normal users.

Meanwhile Apple's standard OS support period is 7 years, that's a much more imminent limit.

Not saying that I support non-user-replaceable SSDs, but if your goal is reducing e-waste, there are more impactful changes to make.

> This can be a good tradeoff.

That's a good tradeoff for durable hardware with available spare parts. That's not a good tradeoff for hardware that was designed so it cannot be repaired, such as newer Macs.

> Not sure why the "vs" scenario, this is a project that makes no promises. And I think they do have some support from Fedora / Red Hat fwiw.

They are building something in an environment that's not supportive of what they're doing. Contrast with Intel or AMD.

So the hardware is capable but the Linux distros aren’t quite there yet?

Fingers crossed for them then. I love the idea of a Framework laptop but I’m only interested in Linux performance.

The main power advantage of the apple chips is when the system is mostly idle - under mid to high load power to watt has been comparable for a few years already (at least AMD and Apple, intel was way behind - but I guess they caught up recently). The main reason behind my M3 MBP back then wasn't so much power efficiency - but that I can get it with 96GB of RAM.

It's nice that I can go a full office day without charging - the previous x86 notebook couldn't, but a decent one from the M3 generation probably could as well. But also if I put proper load an that thing the Macbook battery is done in less than 2 hours.

raises hand, but point taken when painting with broad strokes

> Framework 12 ... days without charging

I don't see how? it is a 50Wh battery. Even at 6W that is about 8h of usage? On what OS + workload on x86 are you seeing just 6W usage? Or is it that each day your usage is only 2 hours?

"up to 9 hours for light web browsing or everyday tasks"

that is 1/3 the battery life of a macbook in the same use case. seems completely incomparable

I'm a bit opponent of Apple's walled garden, but the build quality of this laptop is quite far away from a MacBook... Except the display, this OLED WXHQwhatever is stunning.

Source: I bought the same (with core i7, so it's performant, etc.).

The build quality is not even close.

And macbooks are reaching 18-20 hours usage on battery nowadays, I have stopped carrying the power adapter most of the time.

Of course it’s significantly more expensive, but you do get what you pay for.

My favourite thing about the command key is the position - it’s way further to the right than ctrl on most keyboards, which means you don’t have to contort your thumb back and apply lateral pressure to your thumb joint when copy-pasting.

I’m either doing it wrong on Windows or the entire world is putting up with unnecessary finger pain because whoever chose Ctrl-C was a masochist.

Malicious standards.

See also when Microsoft introduced DocX, Apple products corrupted documents because Apple followed the standard that Microsoft had specified but turns out they didn't follow it themselves.

Sabotage others on things you don't have to do.

You said > "Considering how much better m-series CPUs are, "

And I give some thoughts into may be they are not "much better". And in that case may be sticking to spec and not Thinking Different on certain things matters more.

In illegal output: https://asahilinux.org/slop/

Apple probably uses API with ZDR. I'm talking about leaks.

Oh, my bad, I think the one I intended was this one: https://asahilinux.org/docs/platform/security/#apples-unspok...

> Rumours circulating that Apple are actively hostile towards efforts such as Asahi, or that their security must be bypassed or jailbroken to run untrusted code are unfounded and false. In fact, Apple have expended effort and time on improving their security tooling in ways that only improve the execution of non-macOS binaries. An example of this is giving their Boot Policy configuration tool the ability to wrap raw AArch64 code in a proper Mach-O format starting with macOS 12.1. This is only ever required for enrolling a boot object that is not already a macOS kernelcache.

This is true, although Apple could of just as easily prevented alternative OSes as a whole if they wanted to.

I see a lot of dual-purpose here. Maybe you don't, or maybe you figure it's just a coincidence that Linux can also benefit from this. Apple definitely had it in mind, and designed for it, even if they don't release documentation.

I will admit I am a bit confused by them locking out features like that, especially since they didn't at first. I wouldn't jump to assuming it's hostile, though.

This is Apple we're talking about. What may be the bare minimum for you was a lot of work for them. Work they could have passed up and we would've all had to simply deal with it. They do that all the time, and there's nothing we can do about it. But here they didn't. Here they did "the bare minimum" to allow custom operating systems on their newer hardware. That should be commended. Yes, we should celebrate that hardware we purchase and own still allows us to run code we wrote. Because the alternative is that it could not. Their non-macOS devices already don't.

To be perfectly clear, Apple is like a lifeline to a lot of people. They are one of the last bastions of quality in the hardware and software world. This is why it's such a disappointment that they've been faltering lately: we had high expectations of them, which hasn't been quite so true for the rest of the industry for a while. So it is a big deal that hidden gems like this continue to crop up from them: it is a sign that some of their core values still remain. And I really hope the new CEO will bring back some of what they lost after Steve Jobs.