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Asahi Linux 7.1 Progress Report

asahilinux.org

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Re: Asahi Linux 7.1 Progress Report

#21

Post by Mashimo »

jeroenhd wrote: post #17
sneak wrote: post #8

It is baffling to me that Apple, ostensibly a hardware company (that happens to be pursuing services revenue the way a crackhead pursues crack), ridiculously flush with cash, doesn’t throw 2 or 3 of their thousands of FTEs on this. The goodwill/brand marketing alone is worth their comp, and it will absolutely move units as well. Linux people LOVE laptops, and Apple makes the best laptops by a parsec. It seems like 10…

Apple is a digital services company that happens to sell hardware. Their big money maker is their app store, and no Linux user is ever going to buy apps from the app store. They still have the Darwin kernel open,but more and more of the open core is moving to closed components, a recipe for what Google started doing to Android. Now that they're no longer the hipster underdog, I don't think they care much about the br…

> Their big money maker is their app store

That said, their AirPods division could be a Fortune 500 on its own.

Re: Asahi Linux 7.1 Progress Report

#22

Post by torben-friis »

sneak wrote: post #8

It is baffling to me that Apple, ostensibly a hardware company (that happens to be pursuing services revenue the way a crackhead pursues crack), ridiculously flush with cash, doesn’t throw 2 or 3 of their thousands of FTEs on this. The goodwill/brand marketing alone is worth their comp, and it will absolutely move units as well. Linux people LOVE laptops, and Apple makes the best laptops by a parsec. It seems like 10…

Their amazing laptop hardware pushes you into their ecosystem. Once you're on macOS, might as well get iphone rather than Android and benefit from the synergy, same for airpods or the apple watch.

The only reason I'd see support for Asahi making sense for Apple is a Firefox situation, keeping the project alive to prove to regulators that there are alternatives.

Re: Asahi Linux 7.1 Progress Report

#23

Post by rvz »

sneak wrote: post #8

It is baffling to me that Apple, ostensibly a hardware company (that happens to be pursuing services revenue the way a crackhead pursues crack), ridiculously flush with cash, doesn’t throw 2 or 3 of their thousands of FTEs on this. The goodwill/brand marketing alone is worth their comp, and it will absolutely move units as well. Linux people LOVE laptops, and Apple makes the best laptops by a parsec. It seems like 10…

> It is baffling to me that Apple, ostensibly a hardware company (that happens to be pursuing services revenue the way a crackhead pursues crack), ridiculously flush with cash, doesn’t throw 2 or 3 of their thousands of FTEs on this.

Why should they when they have macOS already?

> Linux people LOVE laptops, and Apple makes the best laptops by a parsec. It seems like 10x ROI would be a conservative estimate.

How many people who buy Apple silicon laptops do it to run Linux on it? less than 10,000 or 20,000 people?

You should not expect Apple to care about what Linux users want. The closest you are getting from them is being able to boot a custom OS or kernel.

Everything else from the drivers to the secure enclave they do not care.

Re: Asahi Linux 7.1 Progress Report

#24

Post by dbdr »

MYEUHD wrote: post #20
eru wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any sources for hardware sales vs app store revenue?

https://bullfincher.io/companies/apple/revenue-by-segment iPhone: 50.4% Mac: 8.1% iPad: 6.7% Wearables, home and accessories: 8.6% Services: 26.2% I assume that the majority of service revenue is App store revenue. Other services they provide are iCloud and Apple care

That's revenue though. Fixed costs for hardware is probably much higher. If we looked at profits, the percentages would probably look quite different.

Re: Asahi Linux 7.1 Progress Report

#25

Post by realusername »

simonmales wrote: post #10

Will this forever exist as a Fedora "remix". Or will we find the support in upstream so I can one day run Debian-based distro? I think the last time I used an RPM-based distro was almost 2 decades ago.

Upstreaming something like this is a monumental task, even small changes can take ages. It will take a while.

Re: Asahi Linux 7.1 Progress Report

#26

Post by mft_ »

jeroenhd wrote: post #17
sneak wrote: post #8

It is baffling to me that Apple, ostensibly a hardware company (that happens to be pursuing services revenue the way a crackhead pursues crack), ridiculously flush with cash, doesn’t throw 2 or 3 of their thousands of FTEs on this. The goodwill/brand marketing alone is worth their comp, and it will absolutely move units as well. Linux people LOVE laptops, and Apple makes the best laptops by a parsec. It seems like 10…

Apple is a digital services company that happens to sell hardware. Their big money maker is their app store, and no Linux user is ever going to buy apps from the app store. They still have the Darwin kernel open,but more and more of the open core is moving to closed components, a recipe for what Google started doing to Android. Now that they're no longer the hipster underdog, I don't think they care much about the br…

AFAIK Apple’s “services” revenue is a little over a quarter of their total; everything else is hardware, dominated by the iPhone. Mac hardware is iPhones are largely locked to their App Store so no risk there. Macs (currently) aren’t locked to the App Store - and I’d guess that Mac App Store usage is middling as a result.

Which is to say, I doubt that a marginal Mac App Store revenue hit from a small proportion of users switching to Linux over MacOS is the driver for not supporting Linux development. I’d guess it’s more about an inflexible company culture and maybe not wanting to extend their area of responsibility and risk.

Re: Asahi Linux 7.1 Progress Report

#27

Post by mhh__ »

sneak wrote: post #8

It is baffling to me that Apple, ostensibly a hardware company (that happens to be pursuing services revenue the way a crackhead pursues crack), ridiculously flush with cash, doesn’t throw 2 or 3 of their thousands of FTEs on this. The goodwill/brand marketing alone is worth their comp, and it will absolutely move units as well. Linux people LOVE laptops, and Apple makes the best laptops by a parsec. It seems like 10…

I read somewhere that Apple even uses Linux kernels to bring up new hardware but I don't know if it's actually/still true.

Re: Asahi Linux 7.1 Progress Report

#28

Post by Angostura »

eru wrote: post #13
boxed wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ad revenue is a drop in the bucket compared to the app store rent, which is a drop in the bucket compared to hardware sales.

Do you have any sources for hardware sales vs app store revenue?

Let’s not conflate total App Store revenue and Ad revenue.

Re: Asahi Linux 7.1 Progress Report

#29

Post by tensegrist »

simonmales wrote: post #10

Will this forever exist as a Fedora "remix". Or will we find the support in upstream so I can one day run Debian-based distro? I think the last time I used an RPM-based distro was almost 2 decades ago.

i've been using nixos on an m2 air for a year now, the kernel is enough

Re: Asahi Linux 7.1 Progress Report

#30

Post by GTP »

sneak wrote: post #8

It is baffling to me that Apple, ostensibly a hardware company (that happens to be pursuing services revenue the way a crackhead pursues crack), ridiculously flush with cash, doesn’t throw 2 or 3 of their thousands of FTEs on this. The goodwill/brand marketing alone is worth their comp, and it will absolutely move units as well. Linux people LOVE laptops, and Apple makes the best laptops by a parsec. It seems like 10…

My father purchased a new MacBook just in time to avoid the recent price increase. It wasn't because his old one didn't work anymore; it was because Apple wouldn't support it on more recent macOS versions, and some applications he runs daily (like Teams) don't work anymore on the latest supported macOS for that MacBook. Apple is an hardware company, and forcing you to upgrade your hardware gives them revenue. Admittedly, his MacBook lasted longer than many other laptops would have. But, if it wasn't for the outdated OS, he would have been happy to keep using it because the hardware was still fine for office use.
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