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Ask HN: How ready for daily driving is Asahi Linux?

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11–20 of 116 posts

Re: Ask HN: How ready for daily driving is Asahi Linux?

#11
post #9

Related question: does anybody exclusively use any Linux distro on MacBooks in a VM? What is the tradeoff and how is your experience? I want the MacBooks for the battery backup, but I cannot live without NixOS, and seems like Asahi is still a few months away.

I only use Lima on the Mac I use at work. But by any limitation by my employer, it's just the easiest thing I've found for running a few containers for my semi-daily workflow.

Re: Ask HN: How ready for daily driving is Asahi Linux?

#12
post #4

Hint: it's not. I'm not asking much though: I just need a linux laptop which is fast (lots of rust compilations) and can stay for a whole day unplugged. Thunderbolt connectivity to dock it at home (and use bigger screens) would be perfect. I don't need the GPU, I'm mainly using the terminal and the CPU in fast enough for that. But it's not even there: the CPU is heating even when doing nothing, the laptop doesn't sle…

>> the laptop doesn't sleep when closed

Linux is amazing but doing the right thing when you close the lid is a seemingly intractable problem for it. Maybe we need a hardware spec and a paid distro to finally solve these kinds of problems.

Re: Ask HN: How ready for daily driving is Asahi Linux?

#13
post #4

Hint: it's not. I'm not asking much though: I just need a linux laptop which is fast (lots of rust compilations) and can stay for a whole day unplugged. Thunderbolt connectivity to dock it at home (and use bigger screens) would be perfect. I don't need the GPU, I'm mainly using the terminal and the CPU in fast enough for that. But it's not even there: the CPU is heating even when doing nothing, the laptop doesn't sle…

>> the laptop doesn't sleep when closed Linux is amazing but doing the right thing when you close the lid is a seemingly intractable problem for it. Maybe we need a hardware spec and a paid distro to finally solve these kinds of problems.

They know what to do, it just requires work and coordination with the upstream linux kernel (extending the PSCI api); still it's not done.

But don't get mistaken, I like this machine very much. When it works, it works fast and very well.

Re: Ask HN: How ready for daily driving is Asahi Linux?

#14

Can anyone comment on battery life in the current state of things?

I'm interested in this as well. I don't have a personal M* MacBook to test it myself(Writing this on a M1 Pro MacBook Pro provided by work, but I'm obviously not trying to boot Asahi Linux on a work machine). I'm thinking about getting a laptop for personal use, and I'd love for a M1 machine if it runs Linux decently. 1. It needs to be able to sleep/resume like a Mac (shut the lid, and it goes to sleep without suckin…

See my other comment; wifi works well, power management doesn't work at all.

Re: Ask HN: How ready for daily driving is Asahi Linux?

#15

No GPU means it gets pretty hot sometimes (don't even try watching videos, I've literally burned myself :'). Otherwise I'd say I could use it as a daily driver: a bit clunky, needs some tinkering, but everything I personally need (VSCodium, Firefox, Docker, wifi, audio in the headphones) already works and works well. If you already have a MacBook you could use, just give it a try – you can dual-boot, so if it doesn't…

> I've literally burned myself /

That can't be good for the longevity of the device.... or of you for that matter

Re: Ask HN: How ready for daily driving is Asahi Linux?

#17

In my opinion, not ready enough, but usable. Speakers are still not safe to use, no use of security components, no Touch-ID, no GPU support, no mics and many more[1]. Though its still very impressive what they got so far, and hope in the near future it will become a full functioning OS. [1] https://github.com/AsahiLinux/docs/wiki/Feature-Support

I don't think speakers are totally safe to use on OSX either. I've blown out speakers on two machines with VCV Rack. :[

Re: Ask HN: How ready for daily driving is Asahi Linux?

#18
It really depends what you need. The basics are working: USB2, wifi, bt, kb, track pad, 3.5mm jack. So it's definitely usable.

Om the other hand there are tons of features that are not ready. GPU, external display (allthough these are relatively close to), speakers, video encoder/decoder, USB3, thunderbolt, deep sleep states and more.

Whether it's ready is a very subjective question on what features you consider essential to have. Personally I will wait until GPU, USB3, thunderbolt and external displays work since I use those constantly.

Re: Ask HN: How ready for daily driving is Asahi Linux?

#19

No GPU means it gets pretty hot sometimes (don't even try watching videos, I've literally burned myself :'). Otherwise I'd say I could use it as a daily driver: a bit clunky, needs some tinkering, but everything I personally need (VSCodium, Firefox, Docker, wifi, audio in the headphones) already works and works well. If you already have a MacBook you could use, just give it a try – you can dual-boot, so if it doesn't…

> I've literally burned myself / That can't be good for the longevity of the device.... or of you for that matter

It sure can't, which is why I'm not doing it anymore :-) For typical development setup (+ some music not from YouTube) it stays gently warm though (while macOS is stone-cold).

Re: Ask HN: How ready for daily driving is Asahi Linux?

#20
post #6

In my opinion, not ready enough, but usable. Speakers are still not safe to use, no use of security components, no Touch-ID, no GPU support, no mics and many more[1]. Though its still very impressive what they got so far, and hope in the near future it will become a full functioning OS. [1] https://github.com/AsahiLinux/docs/wiki/Feature-Support

there's a gpu support. We all have watched how it was built on youtube by a Japanese anime character.

It depends on your definition. It's not yet released so I would say this would count as it's not there yet.

I can't install asahi today and have the GPU work.

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