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Linux Apple

Linux 6.4 Bringing Apple M2 Additions For 2022 MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini (phoronix.com) 37

Further adding to the excitement of the upcoming Linux 6.4 merge window is the mainline kernel seeing the Device Tree (DT) additions for Apple's current M2 devices including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini systems. From a report: The upstream kernel still has more work to go around the M1/M2 support compared to the downstream state with Asahi Linux, but at least now with this DT support will provide some basic level of upstream kernel support for the Apple M2. Asahi Linux lead developer Hector Martin today sent in the Apple SoC DT updates targeting the Linux 6.4 cycle for queuing into the SoC tree ahead of the merge window opening around the end of the month. The main addition with this pull request is adding the Apple M2 Device Tree series.
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Linux 6.4 Bringing Apple M2 Additions For 2022 MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini

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  • What is the use case to wipe a brand new Mac and install Linux on it?

    I'm not being snarky, I'm actually curious.

    • Access to a powerful new processor, without handing over your soul to some corporation in California?
      • You can access a powerful new processor for a small fraction of the price if you buy from a less fruity company.

        • by MobileTatsu-NJG ( 946591 ) on Thursday April 06, 2023 @04:34PM (#63431392)

          You can also have better cell phone security and privacy by not buying an Android phone. Now did I actually bring something useful to the conversation with that quip or we can we all just agree that Linux support for any type processor is preferred over sports-team-like stereotypes?

          • You can also have better cell phone security and privacy by not buying an Android phone.

            Disputable. Apple are on the whole quite a bit better than Android except for one tiny thing which comprises probably the biggest attack surface to privacy which is browsing the web. On Android I use firefox with a bunch of privacy enhancing plugins (noscript, ublock, privacy badger). Safari is useless by comparison, frankly.

        • You can access a powerful new processor for a small fraction of the price if you buy from a less fruity company.

          what does that even mean?

        • by caseih ( 160668 )

          Such as?

          The other Linux ARM devices out there all pretty rubbish compared to the M2, especially in terms of performance and power usage.

          It seems like in the end the M1 and M2 will be better supported by Linux than any other ARM device out there. Contrary to popular belief Linux support for ARM is pretty poor, relying on random kernel forks maintained by overseas companies for short periods of time until the next SoC is cranked out.

          • Why would you insist on ARM specifically? You use whatever hardware is best for the job. And for most of user interface tasks (ie, what you do on an user-facing machine) you need per-thread performance where x86 is still winning by a large margin.

            For slow but power-frugal ARM is superior, and recently they are making inroads in tasks that can be parallelized into a big mob of slow cores, but such tasks are not what a client machine needs.

            • Why would you insist on ARM specifically? You use whatever hardware is best for the job. And for most of user interface tasks (ie, what you do on an user-facing machine) you need per-thread performance where x86 is still winning by a large margin.

              Some would argue the Apple M1/M2 chips are the best hardware at the moment for certain use cases. For performance relative to power efficiency, ARM processors are better than x86 ones. In applications where power usage matters (tablets, laptops), performance is the higher priority. For most consumers, they are not pushing their CPUs to the edge of performance on most daily tasks.

              For slow but power-frugal ARM is superior, and recently they are making inroads in tasks that can be parallelized into a big mob of slow cores, but such tasks are not what a client machine needs.

              Depends on the what the client machine needs to do. For professional video editors who are encoding videos, an AMD 64 core Threadr

        • We are talking about an M2.
          You can access a powerful new processor for a small fraction of the price
          So: no, you cant.

          Ho stupid are you?

          Math is based on numbers, you know?

          Can't be so hard to compare two numbers and figure which is better in:
          a) price
          b) performance

          Seriously? LEARN MATH!!!

    • by giesen ( 820885 ) on Thursday April 06, 2023 @04:19PM (#63431348)
      I presume at least some of this support would apply to Linux VMs running on top of MacOS
    • by thetzar ( 30126 ) on Thursday April 06, 2023 @04:53PM (#63431424) Homepage

      To take better advantage of old/secondhand Mac hardware as it ages out of the role it was originally purchased for. Especially when it loses mainline MacOS support, or is resold into hands that like the hardware at a then-bargain price but don't want MacOS. Fights electronics/computing waste.

    • I would not choose to use Mac OS for any other reason than being brutally forced. But I like Mac Hardware, so when Linux support becomes adequate, I'll consider buying a MacBook Pro, and wipe the system without ever booting it.

    • by caseih ( 160668 )

      Linux Torvalds for one. Can't say exactly what he loves about it, precisely. I'm sure overall speed and the competitive price are two factors.

    • That's not really what this is about. It'll still be years before this is ready for prime-time. Long before then, Apple will already have obsoleted these models and executed a soft-enforced hardware upgrade by purposefully working extra to cripple all their software on anything that isn't their latest 1 or 2 model generations. When that happens, the handful of Linux users foolish enough to splurge on these toy laptops will be relieved they can give them a second life.

    • What is the use case to wipe a brand new Mac and install Linux on it?

      Better operating system, better UI, better drivers.

      Not everyone likes macs.

    • I'm very interested in running Linux on my new M2max Mac in VMware, with good performance and features. Although I don't need "boot from metal", I figure that all this extra support work is great and will help the cause of containerization.
  • Is the device tree really what is holding back easy deployment on the Apple M series?
  • ...how long to wait for having implemented also subtractions, multiplications and divisions ?!?

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