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ARM64 Linux Workstation

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Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#411

Post by coldtea »

jeswin wrote: post #235
coldtea wrote: post #206

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

> 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.

That hasn't been my experience... If anything System76 are much much worse, and Thinkpads mediocre in that aspect

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#412

Post by Asdrubalini »

n8henrie wrote: post #237

Anyone running M1 NixOS? If so, how's it going? Reasonable for a current asahi user that is semi-new to nix?

I do, no issues at all with the beta Asahi kernel, you basically have to git clone https://github.com/tpwrules/nixos-apple-silicon in /etc/nixos/, include a file from that repo in the configuration.nix and configure as you like (beta gpu driver or not, which kernel, 4k pages or not, ecc). The experience then is exactly the same as a stock NixOS installation.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#413

Post by zamadatix »

_448 wrote: post #408
apatheticonion wrote: post #152

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…

> insane battery life Is it just hardware that helps extend battery life or is it the combination of hardware and software? One advantage for Apple is that they are both the hardware and software designer hence they can optimise both to take advantage of each other.

It’s always the sum of all that extends battery life but even when Linux support was just “CPU only rendering and minimal powersave functionality using unmodified DE components” the battery life was still decent. Brute force is quite the force.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#414

Post by xiwenc »

satysin wrote: post #352
apatheticonion wrote: post #152

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…

> Using MacOS on it feels like I have a ferrari with square wheels. Indeed macOS is the weakest part when working on Apple Silicon. Sure it’s quite pretty but it stumbles over itself with terrible quality of life features. macOS looks modern but feels around ten years behind other desktops now. Apple love to talk about how professionals and power users can get so much work done with the amazing Apple Silicon but igno…

> Honestly who at Apple signed off on Stage Manager before basic window snapping?!

Or UX testing. I gave it a try for a week. Gave up. It’s one of those few features that is not intuitive at all.

And it was supposed to help with productivity. Epic fail.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#415

Post by xiwenc »

> In some cases, it is too fast. When I installed K3s, all of the containers in the kube-system namespace kept entering the dreaded CrashLoopBackOff state (something I’ve never seen before outside a production container). After some investigation, I found out that the Mac Studio was just too fast for the Kubernetes resource timing, and I had to add resource limits to each pod to remedy the situation.

You should consider to submit a bug report to k8s project.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#416

Post by flkiwi »

microtonal wrote: post #304
jeswin wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I had a ThinkPad T14 AMD and the battery life on Linux was very mediocre, even after tuning with powertop. It was usually 2-4 hours, on Windows more like 8-9 hours.

Conversely, I'm on a Gen 8 X1, and on Silverblue with tlp replacing power-profiles-daemon, I routinely get 8-9 hours. Anecdata and whatnot, but I'm pretty happy with modern linux + modern hardware. That's not to say I wouldn't love to get my hands on an M1 macbook to see the difference though...

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#417

Post by tjoff »

tbrock wrote: post #376
tjoff wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely if you consider apple hardware you don't care about performance, price or supporting an ecosystem that underpins the very essence of you are trying to do. Buying mac hardware for a linux workstation is madness.

I really would like someone else to put out something competitive in that case, I’m rooting for them but haven’t seen it yet.

For a workstation there are tons of options? I'd argue tha mac studio is a very weak offering for that usecase.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#418

Post by diffeomorphism »

neoromantique wrote: post #390
cycomanic wrote: post #365

I don't get the hype around apple silicon for desktop computers. I sort of understand the power efficiency argument for laptops (although it is often overstated IMO, I could work for >10h straight with my X1 carbon 6 years ago), but for Desktop it is trivial to build a PC that runs significantly faster, with much more upgradability and flexibility for a fraction of the price. So if I want performance on a Linux syste…

>for Desktop it is trivial to build a PC that runs significantly faster for a fraction of the price. Is it though?

Mac Mini m2 pro with decent ram and storage starts at 2000. According to apple current intel and amd chips are faster but much less efficient (ignoring how to define that for now). If you are the "mini" target customer, 2000 will buy you lots of PC hardware.

The article list an m1 ultra with 128gb of ram, so 6000 or so. Not sure what the target market for this is, but the intersection of "4000 does not cut it" and "I don't need high performance computing, clusters, multiple GPUs, no ECC,no more ram than that" to me seems almost empty.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#419

Post by projektfu »

askiiart wrote: post #394
torgoguys wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Force yourself to use it exclusively for a while, no cheating. For better (it's great) AND worse (you have fewer options for laptops), there's no going back after that. I love it and even use Trackpoint with my desktop computer.

Are there any hot-swappaple mechanical keyboards with a trackpoint? The only mechanical keyboard with a trackpoint I can find is the Tex Yoda II, which isn't hot-swappaple, and is also very expensive.

I had a Unicomp but the trackpoint wasn't as good as the Thinkpad* and it broke dead after about a year. Avoid.

*Thinkpad 560X! It was worse than a machine 17 years younger. I'm not sure which version the 560X had.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#420

Post by Joeri »

tjoff wrote: post #281
tbrock wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A comparable m1 is twice as fast in the above benchmarks? And that’s Apple’s chip from 2 years ago! Core for core this is a dog.

Surely if you consider apple hardware you don't care about performance, price or supporting an ecosystem that underpins the very essence of you are trying to do. Buying mac hardware for a linux workstation is madness.

I would argue there are zero options in x86 land that will give you the mac studio form factor (tiny, stylish, quiet) with that level of performance. PC workstations in that class are noisy big beasts. For some people how it looks is part of the set of requirements, and it is not “madness” to also care about that.
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