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1) We are now 2 generations in without full Linux support for the hardware.

2) I used my Powerbook G4 for 12 years; this is mostly because I was a kid with no money. When I got something else, my sister used it for another 3 years. With thermals as they are in this device, instead of selling it after 4-5 years I'd rather keep it for one-off projects as a server like a Mac Mini. I know laptops aren't designed for server work, but I love that it's a server with a builtin terminal. Also a device I'd use for hiking, because I could charge it from backpack solar.

3) The worst experience I've had was telling my dad MacOS Catalina couldn't be installed on his $3.5k iMac.

As you said in your other comment, M3 will be 3nm TSMC? Maybe Linux will look good on Apple Silicon then.

discuss

kalleboo|3 years ago

"2 generations" sounds a lot more dramatic than "2 years" (and it's not even 2 years yet, the first M1 Macs were released in November)

amelius|3 years ago

2 years is a big chunk of a lifetime in tech.

Plus there is no guarantee that Apple will ever allow Linux again.

nicoburns|3 years ago

You have pretty good support except for the GPU at this point (admittedly I'm waiting for this until I install it on my machine). They've had to write all the drivers from scratch, so it was bound to take a while. But on the plus side the hardware interfaces seem to be stable across generations. M2 parity with M1 was implemented in 48 hours! So I'm pretty confident it will mostly be case of linux support continuously improving rather than resetting with each new generation.

thrwawy283|3 years ago

The GPU is important.. afaik the keyboard and trackpad aren't working yet in Asahi Linux.

I don't expect Apple to support the Linux community. It feels like this is trending in one direction. It felt like things stopped being "favorable" to us when they stopped supporting OpenGL and made no effort with Vulkan. The touchbar and some wifi chipsets were poorly supported for years before M1 debuted.

What has been implemented in Asahi is impressive, but it's not ready to be a daily driver. I hope this becomes my mobile device of choice someday. I'd use MacOS for work-work, and I would choose Linux every time for fun-work. So tired of everything having telemetry and vendor lock-in and basic pieces of software moving to subscription models.

Apple laptops became the dev machines of choice because they embraced the OSS community in pretty big ways. Right now the water feels tepid.

tomaskafka|3 years ago

> The worst experience I've had was telling my dad MacOS Catalina couldn't be installed on his $3.5k iMac.

Just in case you'd be ok with unofficial way - there are patchers to enable macOS install on older machines:

https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/install-macos-catalina-unsu...

thrwawy283|3 years ago

This is something I'd be comfortable with maintaining, but I couldn't leave with my dad. (I work on the road for months, and it's unpredictable when I come back. Longest I was out was 2 years..)

jiveturkey|3 years ago

Isn’t that backwards? He wants to install Catalina on M1/M2 hardware. So do I :(