Fedora Asahi Remix first impressions

[andrewmutz]

Would Asahi linux on an apple laptop be the best Linux laptop experience these days for someone who prioritizes fanlessness?

It seems the other ARM option is the ThinkPad X13s, which presumably has lower performance.

Anyone have experience running linux on these machines and can compare the experience and hardware compatibility?

[hbbio]

I think so, X13s can become extremely hot and are slower.

Only things still lacking for single machine use is speakers, microphone and webcam: https://github.com/AsahiLinux/docs/wiki/Feature-Support

[mazugrin2]

I think it depends. For me, fanless is super appealing. However, I have a Dell XPS 13 7390 with a i7-10710U where the fan is at 0 RPM most of the time I use it, and that is super satisfying to me. However, during a big compile, the fan does come on, sometimes it comes on at a high speed. But then, within about 30s to 1 minute, it goes back down to 0 RPM. I'm pretty happy with this, even though I love even more the idea of a computer that didn't even need a fan.

[jasoneckert]

I believe so, but I would stick to the M1 models currently as they have a larger set of supported features complete at this time: https://github.com/AsahiLinux/docs/wiki/Feature-Support

[gymbeaux]

Yes. X13s is less-powerful, has worse battery life, and I think even costs more…

[qwytw]

> seems the other ARM option is the ThinkPad X13s

Seems there is a bunch of Windows laptops from Dell, Lenovo and Samsung besides the X13

https://www.qualcomm.com/products/mobile/snapdragon/pcs-and-...

[zdragnar]

If you don't mind skimping on speaker quality or, depending on model, screen resolution, I will again recommend lg gram laptops. I never heard the fan on my first, and my second only comes on if it is charging a low battery while on a video call, and even that is quiet compared to the helicopter noise of the last MacBook pro I had through my last employer.

[Shawnj2]

There are also the Windows Qualcomm snapdragon laptops and ARM chromebooks

[fweimer]

Does it have to be a laptop? For desktop systems, there are many more options.

[znpy]

Fedora has been really doing an incredible job at creating a great distro for everyday use.

I kinda regret going back and forth between debian and ubuntu when ubuntu started getting shitty, should have moved to fedora eons ago.

[Octabrain]

Fedora is definitely a great distro that I've used a lot in the past. However, there are two main caveats from my POV:

1. The release of a version every six months. (I would prefer at least a yearly release for being sure that things are gonna be matured enough)

2. The fact that Red Hat is behind. (At this point, having seen the CentOS debacle, I don't trust them long term that much)

[valianteffort]

I have never used Fedora, I use Arch on my desktop and really enjoyed it on my macbook. It's kind of sad the Arch developers didn't want to put more effort into supporting alarm.

If Arch is totally dropped by Asahi team it's unlikely I'll continue using linux on my macbook at all. I just have better things to do than manage multiple distros.

[bdavbdav]

Having used Arch heavily in the past, “better things to do” is heavily at odds with “using arch”

[jasoneckert]

As I mentioned in my blog post, I also really like Arch. And I definitely understand the benefits to sticking to a single distro on multiple systems.

But as a long term Fedora user who used Arch as a daily driver for a year and a half because of Asahi, and now just switched back to Fedora because of Asahi, I have a solid appreciation for the benefits that Fedora provides over Arch.

In short, I like Fedora more than Arch (and I really like Arch). Of course, everyone is different, but if you start using Fedora Asahi Remix, there's a good chance you'll put Fedora on everything after a few weeks... just like me, Linus Torvalds, and everyone else who joined the dark side ;-)

[totallywrong]

I love Arch, don't even know how many years I used it. But Fedora really is more polished, if only because it's the distribution with more paid contributors, by far. I suggest you give it a go. Also, in practical terms, Fedora has better ARM support.

[EdwardDiego]

I used Fedora on my last laptop, really enjoyed it, it does adopt the bleeding edge quickly though. E.g., the default files filesystem was Btrfs, and no X just Wayland.

But it was really stable, I think I only hit one issue that was fixed within a week or so. Guess it's a benefit of Red Hat's "patch upstream first" philosophy.

[sosodev]

Shouldn’t this distro require little management?

[coldtea]

Why would you have to "manage" them? Install it, then use it.

[blinkingled]

I put it on my M1 MBP for all of 15 minutes before giving up - I did not have high expectations as I am aware it's cutting edge stuff but it wasn't even remotely usable for me as a daily driver - the touchpad was wonky, konsole kept crashing and also anything drawing on the screen was annoyingly slow. Maybe the desktops work better?

Good on them for trying and I don't mean this as a discouragement but realistically I just don't believe there will be a day anytime soon where it works even as good as standard Linux distro on a x86 laptop now a days. After all not even recent Intel Mac Laptops worked well with Linux.

[darthrupert]

Konsole keeps crashing everywhere, though. Don't use KDE.

[estebarb]

Unrelated with the main topic, but I had years without seeing a website with its own personality. I liked it :)

[honeybadger1]

I have been playing with Asahi since the day it became available but it does take much away from the hardware purchase not having internal audio support. Work in progress as expected and perhaps one day I can daily drive it.

[toomim]

Asahi works well on desktops, but isn't ready for laptops IMO.

Sleep isn't stable yet, for example.

[extr]

What's the status of sleep mode/battery life/trackpad feel on Asahi at this point? Last time I tried it those were the biggest blockers.

[jasoneckert]

You can find all that information here: https://github.com/AsahiLinux/docs/wiki/Feature-Support

I will say the the battery life on my Mac Studio sucks - as soon as I unplug it from power, it turns off.

[mixmastamyk]

What does "container" mean in this context? It is used often and it seems to mean partition, but perhaps not exactly. Is this new overloaded APFS terminology?

[pxc]

> seems to mean partition

> Is this new overloaded APFS terminology?

Yes and yes. It's like a PV in LVM, or a partition in ZFS or BTRFS. What Apple calls an APFS volume is like a logical volume in LVM, or a BTRFS subvolume.

Edit: Had this backwards, at first.

[solomatov]

Is anyone aware of plans to port Asahi changes to make other linux distros, i.e. Ubuntu, and others, to be able to run without additional setup on M1 Macs?

[fragmede]

Asahi changes are being done in such a way as to be upstreamable, at which point any kernel derived off of mainline will pick up their fixes, so eventually detault Ubuntu will run on Apple Silicon. Expect a custom kernel that can be setup with a bit of work before then though.

[jlpom]

An Ubuntu port already exists

[waithuh]

For any HN users struggling to read, blocking Google Fonts or Fontawesome absolutely demolishes the website.

[mrd3v0]

LocalCDN died for this..

[mixmastamyk]

Nice post.

Wondering if/when dependence on macOS will be eliminated? I don’t mind a small recovery partition on disk for… what, firmware updates? But otherwise would prefer macOS get completely out of the way.

Is that a thing that is possible, or will we always be reliant on an “activated” macOS?

[CharlesW]

If I understand it correctly, that partition is not loading macOS, and is necessary for loading any OS — Asahi Remix, macOS, etc.

https://github.com/AsahiLinux/docs/wiki/M1-vs.-PC-Boot

[jasoneckert]

It is technically possible to remove macOS after installing Fedora Asahi Remix, leaving Linux as the sole OS, but this is not recommended to ensure that you can always update the firmware and recover the system.

To install Fedora Asahi Remix, however, you must have macOS to run the installer script and prepare the system for use.

So, the best solution is to shrink macOS to the minimum possible size during installation and use the remaining space for Fedora Asahi Remix should you wish to forget about macOS altogether.

[pacifika]

You’ll need it for firmware updates.

[rs_rs_rs_rs_rs]

>my peripheral devices work

I would live a little more detail on this.

[jasoneckert]

I use a Lenovo TrackPoint II Bluetooth keyboard and Logitech MX Master 3 Bluetooth mouse, as well as a massive Bose sound system.

[pacifika]

Also which year of Mac Studio are we talking about here.

[majestic5762]

You should go to jail for using that font haha

[mazugrin2]

Sorry. Why would this ever be a thing? I'm so confused.

[mazugrin2]

Oh shite! It turns out it is actually a thing. Asahi is going all in on Fedora. I'm definitely surprised and also now a person who is not at all interested in Asahi Linux anymore. Good luck I guess?????

[photonbeam]

That font is difficult, had to force it to change in the browser

[throwawaykk4]

Why help Red Hat at all when they are becoming more like IBM each day?

[jasoneckert]

Because I'm evil ( •̀ᴗ•́ )و

Just kidding - I understand the recent hate directed at Red Hat and IBM, but there are always two sides to every story: https://www.lpi.org/blog/2023/07/30/ibm-red-hat-and-free-sof...

Fedora is an excellent distribution, my second favourite F-word, and a sage choice for providing a polished long-term experience on Apple Silicon.

[RealStickman_]

Fedora contributors are the ones maintaining the packages and they might have more work now if something breaks on the M1. This only "helps" Red Hat in that they can get more testing on ARM.

[pavon]

While Red Hat may have started Fedora, and does draw from it when building RHEL, it is a community-led distribution through and through. At this point boycotting Fedora because you don't want to support Red Hat is about as sensible as boycotting Debian because you don't want to support Canonical.

[toomim]

Is using Asahi helping Redhat? Or is Redhat helping you use Asahi?

[h4x0rr]

RIP stability for Asahi