Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by themadturk 1494 days ago
Asahi Linux is relatively easy to install and is pretty usable, even at this early stage. The key to Asahi's creation is the open nature of Apple's boot loader. No, Apple isn't supporting Asahi as such, but neither is it actively or passively standing in the way.
2 comments
zamadatix 1494 days ago
One could place a bet Asahi will get to such as stage at some point but at this stage you have to be a pretty die-hard tech nerd with a corner case usage scenario to claim it's "pretty usable" though. The speakers don't work, the USB ports won't work with 3.0 devices, the webcam doesn't work, the display brightness isn't adjustable, the touchbar doesn't work, and everything renders on the CPU since the GPU is unsupported killing the battery life. Eventually these things may be well supported or they may not.
link
themadturk 1490 days ago
The only response I can offer to this is that I can browse the web, read email, and edit text with it. That's probably 85% of my computer usage right there. My MacBook Air doesn't have a touchbar, I can generally get by without video or games so CPU vs. GPU rendering and sound aren't critical, and I haven't needed to use a webcam (on that machine, that is) for months. Yes, USB is slow and battery life is shorter. But I use the Mac side most of the time anyway. Asahi is a fun experiment for me.
link
happymellon 1494 days ago
It doesn't support the majority of the hardware and Apple hasn't provided any specs.

> Apple isn't supporting Asahi as such

That isn't Linux friendly, that's Linux indifferent.

link