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ARM64 Linux Workstation

jasoneckert.github.io

231–240 of 493 posts

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#232

I cannot wait for Linux to be fully usable on my Apple Silicon MBP. That is going to be such a killer environment to develop on. Crazy fast hardware, great high refresh screen, insane battery life, fantastic touchpad, gestures and keyboard. There is the potential that Windows games could run on it with some combination of x86 translation and Proton. Using MacOS on it feels like I have a ferrari with square wheels. Wa…

> Want to use FUSE? Not on your work computer locked to high-sec mode as you cannot install kernel extensions (where is our user space FS Apple?). FYI, MacFUSE has a user-space library (`libfuse`). The kernel extension also works fine on macOS 13 if you can persuade your IT department to allow it.

I use the user space alternative, yeah - it does the trick though it integrates as a network drive.

Unfortunately, MacBooks are limited to being in "restricted" security mode which disallows kernel extensions from being loaded.

We are not allowed to use "Permissive" security mode

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#233

I cannot wait for Linux to be fully usable on my Apple Silicon MBP. That is going to be such a killer environment to develop on. Crazy fast hardware, great high refresh screen, insane battery life, fantastic touchpad, gestures and keyboard. There is the potential that Windows games could run on it with some combination of x86 translation and Proton. Using MacOS on it feels like I have a ferrari with square wheels. Wa…

> I cannot wait for Linux to be fully usable on my Apple Silicon MBP Since TFA says "everything works" atm, including GPU, Bluetooth, Audio, USB, etc, what's stopping you from doing it now?

Support for multi external monitors and improvements to power efficiency. It's also unlikely that my company's security team will permit Asahi until Apple Silicon support is available in the mainline Linux kernel.

I asked and they said currently they don't permit it

Native GPU support with support for Vulkan APIs and some games running would also go a long way towards making the switch as I'm permitted to dual boot MacOS and Asahi - allowing me to once again use one device for "work and play".

Right now I dual boot Asahi and it's "work and experiment"

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm wondering if an M1 MacBook would actually have such a good battery life on linux. The processor is very power efficient, but I'd (naively) assume that MacOS's power management probably has a big influence too. In the same way that Linux laptops usually have a bad battery life compared to the same hardware on Windows. How good is Asahi when running similar workloads? And is it possible that it could reach parity w…

> I'm wondering if an M1 MacBook would actually have such a good battery life on linux. Not 100% the same, but the Asahi members reported something like 8 hours on a M1 Macbook, so that's better than most/all x86 laptops with Linux

Better than high performance mobile workstations, sure, but I was getting 10-12 hour battery off a macbook air running Gentoo nearly a decade ago. PBP gets 10+ hours. $25 scrap latitude with ~70% peak capacity gets 6-8 hours.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm wondering if an M1 MacBook would actually have such a good battery life on linux. The processor is very power efficient, but I'd (naively) assume that MacOS's power management probably has a big influence too. In the same way that Linux laptops usually have a bad battery life compared to the same hardware on Windows. How good is Asahi when running similar workloads? And is it possible that it could reach parity w…

> I'm wondering if an M1 MacBook would actually have such a good battery life on linux. Not 100% the same, but the Asahi members reported something like 8 hours on a M1 Macbook, so that's better than most/all x86 laptops with Linux

> 8 hours on a M1 Macbook, so that's better than most/all x86 laptops with Linux

It is makes no sense to compare an $1k/$2k M1 Macbook with random laptops. Those laptops exist because people want to run MS Word or Excel for $400. That's the feature.

Various System76 laptops, Thinkpads (among many other laptops recommended by Linux users) give you battery life comparable to macOS on the M1.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#238
post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm wondering if an M1 MacBook would actually have such a good battery life on linux. Not 100% the same, but the Asahi members reported something like 8 hours on a M1 Macbook, so that's better than most/all x86 laptops with Linux

Better than high performance mobile workstations, sure, but I was getting 10-12 hour battery off a macbook air running Gentoo nearly a decade ago. PBP gets 10+ hours. $25 scrap latitude with ~70% peak capacity gets 6-8 hours.

I actually think you're onto something with this. When I run compilation workloads on my M1 MBP, I get 3-4 hours battery life.

VMs and games (crossover) also bring my battery life down to 4-6 hours.

My old intel MBP would get around the same battery life when doing the same workloads (games under bootcamp Windows), it would get worse battery life sitting idle or for optimised workloads (like video playback).

Mixed workloads, I get maybe 2-3 hours more with my M1 laptop. That's not nothing, but it's not the crazy 18 hours battery life in the marketing material

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#239

Does anyone know how cost effective a base M1 Mac Studio would be compared to a PC build with comparable cost? There's also the obvious set of trade offs, such as being quiet, compact, but being unrepairable, while the PCs having nearly the opposite qualities. Is the power efficiency of Apple Silicon still a major advantage in a desktop system?

The stock Mac Mini with M2, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD is $600. Pretty good deal for what you're getting.

You can get a Ryzen 6800H mini PC with 32GB RAM and a 500GB SSD for less than $600 these days.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#240

> Asahi is a Linux distribution that can run natively on Apple Silicon-based Macs due to some slick reverse engineering provided by members of the open source community. Moreover, running Asahi is perfectly legal because Apple formally allows booting non-macOS operating systems on their Apple Silicon platform. Umm how would it ever be not legal? Even if Apple doesn't formally allow it, you're free too so with your ow…

I think they were referring to the bootloader not being locked down.
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