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Would you be willing to fund a Linux port to Apple Silicon?

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Re: Would you be willing to fund a Linux port to Apple Silicon?

#151

Post by ddingus »

slang800 wrote: post #143
rowanG077 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the current 13 inch devices have vastly underperforming cooling systems. Well every device except the Apple macbook pro.

If you're not willing to look outside of the exact form factor and specs that Apple happens to support, then open devices aren't a priority for you. I use a 1 inch thick Thinkpad that's almost a decade old because it runs Libreboot. There is an alternative, but you need to be in the mindset where freedom is more important than hardware.

I do too, and that machine is a beast! Plenty fast.

Re: Would you be willing to fund a Linux port to Apple Silicon?

#152

Post by ddingus »

rowanG077 wrote: post #131
ric2b wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by no alternative?

All the current 13 inch devices have vastly underperforming cooling systems. Well every device except the Apple macbook pro.

What is worth what?

Serious question. Freedom / open computing

, or

Spiffy hardware.

Pick one. This is where we are right now.

Re: Would you be willing to fund a Linux port to Apple Silicon?

#153

Post by heavyset_go »

Gaelan wrote: post #117
oblio wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is turning into a services company, though, look at their numbers. And one of those core services is the App Store.

I'm pretty sure the vast majority of Mac apps still aren't distributed on the App Store. The Mac App Store almost certainly isn't a big money-maker.

They're turning the screws, the ARM Macs are the first Macs that will not run unsigned binaries.

It's already at the point where macOS will treat apps as if they're radioactive if the developer didn't pay the $100 Apple tax before distributing it.

Re: Would you be willing to fund a Linux port to Apple Silicon?

#154

Post by OldHand2018 »

oblio wrote: post #47
internet2000 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If mobile is any indication, expect the performance gap to widen as time goes on.

Isn't Qualcomm kind of the same distance behind with the most recent hardware? I don't get the impression that the gap is widening, with the new high perf ARM cores it seems to be shrinking, even.

The M1 represents Apple’s best effort running on the world’s most advanced manufacturing process.

It’s a pretty safe bet that up until now the Qualcomm team hasn’t been given the freedom or the resources to make their best effort on a general-purpose desktop-class chip. Now that Apple has shown what is possible, you might think that the gloves are coming off. Especially if Microsoft and/or Samsung* indicate that they would buy such a chip at the price it would have to be sold at.

* Microsoft and Samsung currently sell ARM-based laptops, with the Microsoft version being a slight modification of the Qualcomm chip in the Samsung.

Re: Would you be willing to fund a Linux port to Apple Silicon?

#155

Post by toyg »

doctor_eval wrote: post #96
mondoshawan wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

XNU is not FOSS, and 99% of the foundation classes, Aqua, and drivers are all proprietary.

Why is XNU not FOSS? Has something changed? Is Wikipedia wrong? It says that XNU is APSL which is approved by OSI and FSF. While I agree that much of the good stuff is proprietary (but certainly not all, eg WebKit), that doesn’t mean that the free stuff isn’t free. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Public_Source_License

Webkit was likely "saved" by the original KHTML license being GPL. At the time, Apple were wise enough (or desperate enough) to figure that they could work with such a license, although they were eventually careful to chisel out anything they could into BSD-licensed modules. And still they had to be dragged into the light more or less kicking and screaming (e.g. they had no public VSC until KDE people kicked up a stink in the press, and were just throwing huge swaths of code "over the fence" like they still do with XNU).

Re: Would you be willing to fund a Linux port to Apple Silicon?

#156

Post by zoid_ »

rowanG077 wrote: post #131
ric2b wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by no alternative?

All the current 13 inch devices have vastly underperforming cooling systems. Well every device except the Apple macbook pro.

I agree with your message in general, however believe that the new M1 Mac mini has the best (and sufficient) cooling among the new line up.

Re: Would you be willing to fund a Linux port to Apple Silicon?

#157

Post by someperson »

By the way, there's a crowdfunding project to improve Linux touchpad support titled "Linux touchpad like a Macbook: goal worth pursuing?".

I don't know how successful that project was, but it might provide some ideas around crowdfunding improved hardware support.

Re: Would you be willing to fund a Linux port to Apple Silicon?

#159

Post by nrp »

rowanG077 wrote: post #126
ekianjo wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

X86 based PCs are no alternative?

Unfortunately not. There are no 13 inch x86 devices on the market that don't throttle afaik.

Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) is a desirable feature. You're not getting a 60W CPU in a 13" form factor, but you can get a 28W CPU that will run at 28W indefinitely while also being able to temporarily boost to 60W when needed and thermally able to.

Re: Would you be willing to fund a Linux port to Apple Silicon?

#160

Post by wmf »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #148
rowanG077 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately not. There are no 13 inch x86 devices on the market that don't throttle afaik.

You've been mislead if you think the 13" Macbooks run at full boost clock all the time.

It looks like the M1 does run all out all the time (maybe because it never turbos that much to begin with).
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