Asahi Linux Progress Linux 7.0 • Hacker News Board

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Linux 7.0

#241

Post by mort96 » Sun, Apr 26, 2026, 7:49 PM UTC

__turbobrew__ wrote: post #217

tomnipotent wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except there's no legal basis Apple could use to "instantly kill" the project.

Apple could change the platform/firmware to break Asahi if they wanted to. They could lock down the hardware to make it nearly impossible to install another OS like they do with iphone.

I mean so could any other hardware vendor?

No Mac in history has been locked down in the way you describe, and there's really no indication that Apple would start now. If they were ever going to, the ARM transition would've been the perfect time to do it, yet they invested engineering resources into adding support for booting non-Apple kernels into their bootloader.

They could of course release a new line of laptops or a firmware update tomorrow which locks down the bootloader and prevents booting non-Apple kernels. But so could Lenovo, Dell, HP, Samsung, Sony, or any other laptop vendor. Or Microsoft, Intel, AMD or Qualcomm could exert their influence, as owners of various parts of the ecosystem, to shift the PC landscape in that direction.

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Linux 7.0

#242

Post by ryandrake » Sun, Apr 26, 2026, 8:01 PM UTC

rasz wrote: post #238

ryandrake wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe this is a little pedantic, but we're not talking about a default among the many other available options supported by the chip. We're talking about 48 or 96 kHz being intentionally (or unintentionally) made the only allowed options. So either someone said "we must disallow the other options" or they didn't and it's a bug.

Imagine LCD screen capable of emitting from IR to UV and people up in arms because laptop vendor software limits output to visible spectrum.

Come on, don't do that here. You can see in the thread I replied to there are practical benefits for supporting additional sampling rates.

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Linux 7.0

#243

Post by kakwa_ » Sun, Apr 26, 2026, 8:02 PM UTC

bri3d wrote: post #107

kakwa_ wrote: post #71

While I absolutely love the technical write-up from the Asahi team, and being absolutely impressed by their accomplishment, to the risk of being an overly negative contrarian, I remain a bit skeptical. I'm concerned that after all these years, it's still a separate project and not an effort sustained directly within the kernel mainline and mainstream distributions like Ubuntu, Debian or Fedora. These kinds of reverse…

> I'm concerned that after all these years, it's still a separate project and not an effort sustained directly within the kernel mainline and mainstream distributions What does this mean? Hardware support is rarely developed inside these organizations; what makes it seem like these groups would be a good home for this effort? It makes sense to have a group of experts in a field (Apple hardware/firmware) contribute pa…

Well, after a while, the effort of maintaining and improving M-series kernel support should be directly be done by kernel maintainers, not within a fork with periodic merges (maybe some Asahi folks should become kernel maintainers).

Doing so would enabled mainstream distributions to provide maintainable M-series builds, with all that entails in terms of stability, enabling choice, maintenance or security fixes.

The whole fork + dedicated distribution made sense at the start of the project since it provided a playground for quickly iterating and experimenting (which is a no-no to do directly in the mainline kernel or in a major distribution).

But Asahi is still the only Linux on Silicon option after all these years, which is a bit worrisome. Asahi should have been a cool but temporary initiative.

At some point, the project will lose momentum and for its accomplishments to last, it should be merged into the general effort, i.e. drivers maintained directly in the Linux kernel, and the userland stuff made to be easily packaged and shipped by mainstream distributions.

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Linux 7.0

#244

Post by rglullis » Sun, Apr 26, 2026, 8:04 PM UTC

rafaelmn wrote: post #232

rglullis wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My variosu Linux adventures have always resulted in doing random patches for audio or screen incompatibility. This is the kind of dated argument that really makes me dismiss most of the critics. I was running xubuntu as my main desktop since 2010 at least, switched to Debian + nix + XFCE in 2022 and switched to full-on nixOS in 2024. I never had issues with audio then and had to go out of my way to "break" audio on…

>This is the kind of dated argument that really makes me dismiss most of the critics. I was running xubuntu as my main desktop since 2010 at least, switched to Debian + nix + XFCE in 2022 and switched to full-on nixOS in 2024. I never had issues with audio then and had to go out of my way to "break" audio on NixOS when I wanted to try pipewire instead of pulse. Did you ever do any DAW ? Did you have to use is jackd ?…

Dealing with real-time on Linux is an issue, yes. It has gotten better with pipewire but still far from MacOS.

Everything else I have it on pretty much "just works". I am not a big gamer, but Steam works. Bluetooth works. Wi-Fi works. It detects my printer and scanner better than my wife's windows laptop. No browser crashes.

NixOS is well supported on the Framework and on my workstation. The worst type of inconveniences I have nowadays would be things like what I had some weeks ago: Zoom wouldn't find an already-running process and would get stuck in a loop, solved it by running "nixos-rebuild switch --upgrade".

Compare that with the complaints that you hear from Apple users and the constant reporting on declining quality on MacOS and iOS, and you see why I take issue with statements like "most linux users want the MacOS experience, except with more customization".

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Linux 7.0

#245

Post by bri3d » Sun, Apr 26, 2026, 8:11 PM UTC

kakwa_ wrote: post #243

bri3d wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm concerned that after all these years, it's still a separate project and not an effort sustained directly within the kernel mainline and mainstream distributions What does this mean? Hardware support is rarely developed inside these organizations; what makes it seem like these groups would be a good home for this effort? It makes sense to have a group of experts in a field (Apple hardware/firmware) contribute pa…

Well, after a while, the effort of maintaining and improving M-series kernel support should be directly be done by kernel maintainers, not within a fork with periodic merges (maybe some Asahi folks should become kernel maintainers). Doing so would enabled mainstream distributions to provide maintainable M-series builds, with all that entails in terms of stability, enabling choice, maintenance or security fixes. The w…

This is... literally exactly what they are doing?

Of all of the reverse engineering related Linux efforts (and most corporate Linux efforts), Asahi have been the most methodical and relentless about upstreaming changes into the kernel and all of their upstream intermediaries (freedesktop/Mesa etc.), specifically so it's maintained, even at the detriment of the project velocity and contributor health.

Asahi is explicitly not supposed to be a fork + dedicated distribution long term and over time, the delta between Fedora Asahi Remix and Fedora has grown smaller and smaller.

> Asahi is still the only Linux on Silicon option

What do you mean? There are non-Fedora Remix distributions which incorporate the "edge" Asahi changes, like https://ubuntuasahi.org . And again, as more and more gets mainlined, it becomes increasingly plausible that many distributions will be able to support Apple Silicon "out of the box" without much special consideration.

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Linux 7.0

#246

Post by wwweston » Sun, Apr 26, 2026, 8:15 PM UTC

robmccoll wrote: post #79

u_fucking_dork wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet it’s incredibly popular and successful. Windows is also ass, and the year of the Linux desktop is perpetually a few years away.

Being the least bad doesn't make something good. macOS is the least bad choice for the majority of people that just want a machine to mostly browse the Internet, look at their photos, do some light productivity work, and participate in their ecosystem. It also arguably hosts has the best software options for creative work (although that's reaping the fruits of seeds planted long ago - not sure there's much about macO…

I’ve been using macOS because its creative ecosystem for decades. And over the last 10 years, it’s started to be apparent to me this is an expensive and unstable place to be. It will not be a place where tools find longstanding stability measured in decades. It is and will be a place where various sandcastle taxes are periodically assessed so the particular vision of the platform as a novel current luxury experience will be reinforced, and developers and users will be asked to keep pace on the treadmill and smile.

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Linux 7.0

#247

Post by nine_k » Sun, Apr 26, 2026, 8:18 PM UTC

mapleleaf1921 wrote: post #45

georgeburdell wrote: post #37

I really hope this project continues to gain momentum. Apple Hardware + Linux is the least fscked OS running on the best hardware. MacOS continues to be a tire fire with endless bugs and churn between versions.

I've run all 3 major OSes before. MacOS by far has the least bugs and kinda just works. My variosu Linux adventures have always resulted in doing random patches for audio or screen incompatibility. My windows days were plagued with battery issues. I feel like most Linux ricers wishs for a MacOS-like experience, except with more customisation. (Which is entirely possible now with the ricing on Mac)

I'm likely not "most Linux ricers", but as a long-term desktop Linux user, I'm very bothered when I have to use macOS GUI, and explicitly want a non-macOS experience. (This is why I avoid Gnome, for instance.)

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Linux 7.0

#248

Post by exe34 » Sun, Apr 26, 2026, 8:20 PM UTC

normie3000 wrote: post #234

exe34 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My variosu Linux adventures have always resulted in doing random patches for audio or screen incompatibility. Is that on Mac hardware? I run a 14 year old Mac Book Air, and it works flawlessly with the latest Nixos, and has done for the last 11 years. If you have issues on random PCs, it's because there are an enormous variety of them out there, with all kinds of incompatibilities that have to be worked around. On…

Did wifi work out of the box? I really struggled with a 2013 Air.

I think I might have used a usb ethernet to install it? It was 2017 the last (and first) time I had to re-install, so I don't remember.

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Linux 7.0

#249

Post by porphyra » Sun, Apr 26, 2026, 8:23 PM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #53

georgeburdell wrote: post #37

I really hope this project continues to gain momentum. Apple Hardware + Linux is the least fscked OS running on the best hardware. MacOS continues to be a tire fire with endless bugs and churn between versions.

You should give Framework a try. It's been a flawless experience with Fedora. And with the upcoming Framework 13 Pro, battery life and trackpad are expected to be on par (or in the case of battery, even better than macos)

The new Framework 13 Pro is undeniably really nice and a huge step up from the earlier Framework laptops. But the sad reality is that x86 processors are falling behind in performance. The Intel Core Ultra X7 358H is a whopping 35% slower than the M5 Pro (15 CPU 16 GPU) in both single core and multicore benchmarks, while the Framework 13 Pro with the 358H costs about the same as the Macbook Pro 14 with the M5 Pro ($2200 each).

Of course, currently Asahi only supports up to M2, so if you really want Linux, the Panther Lake should still outperform most of the 4 year old M2 devices. It remains to be seen which of the following can come sooner:

* new faster chips come out that support Linux

* Asahi finally supports M5

Right now it seems that the former is more likely to be true. But we shall see.

Re: Asahi Linux Progress Linux 7.0

#250

Post by hedora » Sun, Apr 26, 2026, 8:27 PM UTC

loeg wrote: post #226

embedding-shape wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you have the stupid situation Linux used to have where only one app could play audio at a time When was that? I think my first Linux distribution was Ubuntu 8.04 and fairly sure it shipped with PulseAudio which in mind always been able to play audio from multiple sources at the same time, maybe I misremember?

In the time before PulseAudio, when it was ALSA (and OSS).

Even back then, it could play more than one stream. You had to have a sound card or kernel drivers that supported it (and all non-obsolete ones did by the time pulse audio came out).

I still don’t know what purpose pulseaudio serves, other than adding latency and making stuff less reliable.

PipeWire is better, but it turns out you can just use OSS under freebsd these days, and everything just works, but with lower latency.

If you have some sort of potato sound card that can’t mix output channels in hardware, note that OSS added sw mixing by 2007 (with support for 16 channels by default).