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Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 7.2

asahilinux.org

181–190 of 242 posts

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 7.2

#181
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or why bother buying an expensive machine in the first place...

I actually didn’t buy it! It was a gift from a friend who really likes splurging at Micro Center. If it were my money, I probably would’ve gotten an Air.

Supporting the most closed option is worth it because...?

The hardware is not even that good. Sure, the CPUs are nice but nice enough to actively support the most closed up system? Not by a longshot.

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 7.2

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, the state of non-Apple hardware makes your parent’s comment a defensible position. Btw, using Linux in general means having “some unpaid volunteer do it for you”

No it doesn't. This reads like someone who hasn't touched a non-apple Laptop in 15-20 years.

I don't think it's possible to create a Linux machine with no volunteer-built software on it.

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 7.2

#183
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm optimistic we're getting really close to "forever laptops" once competing hardware catches up on efficiency. What do I need any higher specs for, other than battery life?

As someone who does a lot of work with local LLM's, today's systems feel woefully under-powered. I'm looking forward to a future where my laptop has 10x the memory, 100x the memory bandwidth, and optimized cores to make inference workflows that currently take minutes or hours go down to seconds or milliseconds. While we're at the point where traditional software is pretty much fast enough for all but extreme use-case…

Right now there isn’t really a convincing use case for local LLMs outside of enthusiast or specific niches.

It takes a lot of expensive hardware, and most people don’t have extreme enough requirements to recoup that investment.

That might change, but it would require either that hardware gets much cheaper or everyone’s demands for LLMs increase significantly.

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 7.2

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I paid thousands of dollars to apple who provided a great hw product with their own OS preinstalled and free".

"... so that I can never switch to anything ever due to vendor lock-in, which includes hard-to-transfer data, muscle memory and habit forming not applicable to other OSes, accounts bound to iCloud, voluntary surrender of privacy, acceptance of planned obsolescence and non-repairability, lack of support beyond 'try turning it off-on' or 'replace your device for half its price', etc., etc. But hey, the hw is great!"

I've got one - I bought a macbook from apple so I don't have to replace it for a decade. My 2014 one still works fine, aside from a distorted right speaker. And you know what? I'd do it again!

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 7.2

#185
post #136
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You said > "Considering how much better m-series CPUs are, " And I give some thoughts into may be they are not "much better". And in that case may be sticking to spec and not Thinking Different on certain things matters more.

sounds like a baseless claim frankly. they are still better. better than previous gen, essentially better than competition. only the latest intel cpu are beginning to get "comparable" with previous m-series cpu.

>sounds like a baseless claim frankly.

>only the latest intel cpu are beginning to get "comparable" with previous m-series cpu.

I am comparing ARM CPU against ARM CPU Core. Which is why it needs to there to the ARM Spec specific to ARM ISA. And those are standard ARM CPU design tested across industry benchmarks. Not sure what is baseless about it.

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 7.2

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ctrl/Shift+Insert are the actual standard, from IBM's CUA.

I know those from growing up with QBASIC and EDIT.COM, but I think the only software I've used that actually supports them is the Windows conhost (the default UI for command-line apps).

What? Ctrl/Shift Insert is supported basically everywhere in Windows, from the lowly Notepad to the behemoth that’s Microsoft Word. Browsers support it. Terminals support it. On Linux all Linux apps I’ve tried support it. Even Emacs which famously doesn’t support the usual C-c C-v supports it (mapped to kill-ring-save and yank). This is as universal as possible in the world without Cmd key.

In fact the last time I bought a keyboard I made sure the keyboard mapping can be customized so I can actually put the Insert key on it.

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 7.2

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ctrl/Shift+Insert are the actual standard, from IBM's CUA.

I know those from growing up with QBASIC and EDIT.COM, but I think the only software I've used that actually supports them is the Windows conhost (the default UI for command-line apps).

GNU/Linux[1] seems to support it. Windows probably does too.

[1] Tested on KDE Wayland and Xfce X11.

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 7.2

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple saves itself a lot of the trouble with superior build quality. With Samsung devices (so no cheap crap), USB ports last me about three years of heavy use. With my old iPhone 12, 2019 16-inch MBP or my 2022 MBA? Not a single issue. The housing is simply constructed so tight and, being made of solid metal, rigid that the housing bears the torsion load and not the tiny PCB solder pads. The only problem I have with…

> With Samsung devices (so no cheap crap), USB ports last me about three years of heavy use. What are you doing to these machines?! I work in the safety and security biz, including in the field , and my trusty HP EliteBook 2730p is still rocking along on its first USB ports. That machine is over 15 bloody years old!

> What are you doing to these machines?

Mostly, keeping them in my pocket with a USB cable attached to a power bank. Places an awful lot of torsion force on the connector. I tend to go through 2-3 charges a day.

Another issue is that I have cats that like to play with everything being too close to a table corner.

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 7.2

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, the state of non-Apple hardware makes your parent’s comment a defensible position. Btw, using Linux in general means having “some unpaid volunteer do it for you”

I'm using Intel Thinkpad. And I'm pretty sure that Intel does a good amount of work upstreaming Intel support in Linux. So I'm not sure that using Linux in general means having some unpaid volunteer do it for you. In fact I believe that most Linux development nowadays is pretty far from unpaid volunteer work. Regarding state of non-Apple hardware. Well, my laptop just works. Literally zero hardware or compatibility i…

Intel Corporation is indeed the largest corporate contributor of commits to Linux Kernel (outside individual contributors).

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Report: Linux 7.2

#190
post #132
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My steelman read of that would be that there is a difference between paying Apple a premium to make installing Linux hard vs. paying, say, Framework a premium to make installing Linux easy.

Except the Asahi Linux team are pretty insistent that Apple isn't making it particularly hard. Yes the hardware is novel, but hardly any hardware vendors share low level details on the Intel side either, all that has to be reverse engineered anyway.

Yeah, they insist on that and then write long blog posts on how they have to reverse engineer basic things which have been contributed by other manufacturers to linux kernel directly.
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