It’s absolutely mental that a reverse-engineered hardware stack, with a bespoke gpu driver in Rust, achieved this kind of performance, in this amount of time. God tier skills, between all the engineers involved in the project
Alyssa is an absolute legend. Every time I read a banger blog post I check the author, and on multiple sites she comes up as the OP.
She makes me rethink my life choice. Lol
I liked how each of the sections ended with a different game that she’s gotten running so far. It makes the article feel like a progressively bigger flex, which, of course, it is. Awesome to see this work progressing!
While Linux can’t mix page sizes between processes, it can virtualize another Arm Linux kernel with a different page size. So we run games inside a tiny virtual machine using muvm, passing through devices like the GPU and game controllers. The hardware is happy because the system is 16K, the game is happy because the virtual machine is 4K
Insane work, holy shit
Maybe I’m too entrenched in FOSS political vision, but why devote these tremendous efforts to improve products of a company like Apple. I don’t understand the motivation behind Asahi linux, except “just because it can be done” ie academic purpose
It’s not improving it cause apple can use it. It’s improving cause people can use it even after apple is not supporting it or don’t like apple’s OS.
To me it’s similar to buying illegal animal products and showcasing it for public awareness
“It’s not to support the poachers but to raise awareness”
It’s more like reducing global ewaste and keeping ecology better, when apple drop support, people better use still capable hardware than buy a new one from apple
Yea. I like my MacBook and I like macOS (yes, I know, shame on me). But in a few years, when Apple eventually stops supporting it, I can just put Linux on it and keep using it (or give it to a relative who just needs a working computer). It’s good hardware and in true Apple fashion, it will probably outlast its software. I also have an old Core 2 Duo unibody macbook laying around and while it is possible to put the latest macOS on (thanks hackintosh community), Linux is a much better experience and the MacBook is sturdier and has a better trackpad and keyboard than most new laptops, even many that are much more expensive.
I only use old PC hardware (mostly apple) that friends and family give me for free 😂 Linux is great
x86 isn’t open either and a lot of people like the M1’s efficiency (I’m an Asahi Linux user)
How is the battery life on Asahi Linux compared to MacOS?
A lot of people say it’s good although personally it hasn’t been a huge improvement for me, I’m guessing there’s certain hardware-software integration in macOS and software optimizations that contributes to the battery life that isn’t happening in Linux. It’s dying less quickly than my HP laptop though. I also tend to not close stuff so that may be a problem.
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Absolutely nothing comes close to the thinness and lightness, combined with battery and performance of my M2 Air. And that’s not to mention that Apple’s touchpads are still so far ahead of everyone else that I’d like to laugh about it, but it’s too embarrassing for that. It’s not like I’m not aware of the linux/windows alternatives, it’s that there simply are no alternatives…I’d rather deal with Apple’s shit software instead of everyone else’s subpar hardware, because software is changeable.
Also, since the Asahi team actually knows what they’re doing, it turns out that their linux support on Apple Silicon is often better in a lot of ways than most windows-centric laptops. They take a long time to support certain hardware capabilities, but once they do you can be sure that it works flawlessly. Can’t say the same about any other laptop I owned before (although Framework, System 76 and Tuxedo laptops are probably good in that regard).
Also, while the keyboard on my Dell XPS broke a whopping 5 times in the last few years, the Macbook Air has yet to show any signs of wear. The reason I got a Macbook is because I need to get work done and need a reliable machine for that. And what can I say, my god has it ever been reliable.
Thank you for detailing this. I’m no fan of OSX or Apple the company but the quality of their laptop hardware is undeniable. They’re really good at it.
It saves ewaste. In 6 years, will macOS still be supported on these machines? Maybe. Will an open source distro be supported? If it’s still thriving, yeah.
In my field of work, I’m stuck with the Apple ecosystem anyway. So having the chance to run linux on my M1 for all my personnal project is awesome. Also, as much as I hate Apple, those computers are just absolute beast in term of processing power, battery and design.
And longevity. I have a 2011 MBP thats now running Debian and is still a tank. I’ve had two MacBooks since I got it but the damn thing refuses to die.
My daily laptop is an M2 Air which is ridiculously powerful for my needs, so when Apple drop OS support for it I’ll put Asahi on it and keep it trucking until the wheels fall off.
And that 2011 will still be going.
Yep, same. My 2012 mb is on Mint and it still blows away most of the modern PC laptops sub 500$ . Pre 2016 intel MB are amazing machines.
I hate macOS therefor it’s useful cause I like to tinker. And make things do things.
This is absolutely insane. Yesterday i went to github to look what they are cooking and what they have done the last few months is on another level. Props to anyone involved.
tfw gaming on reverse engineered linux is better than macos on macs.
Hopefully we get DP over USBC soon on the m2 Mac studios
Yoo those overpriced macs can game
