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ARM64 Linux Workstation

jasoneckert.github.io

61–70 of 493 posts

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#61
Are these ARM64 Mac using ECC?

P.S: the 3440x1440 screenshot in TFA looks gorgeous on my system. Everything is using subpixel AA (terminals, code editor, browser, except for the URL, for whatever reason) but not the file manager. I wonder why that is.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#62

I'd be curious to see properly done benchmarks against top of the line Intel or AMD machines. I'd be surprised if the Mac was faster. I do understand that people want the Mac for the build quality of the laptop, not just for speed.

Don't forget that it's the best bang for the watt (at least when running macOS).

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#63
is the super fast speed mainly due to Linux the OS? is there benchmark done to compare to MacOS? with most recent hardware and 128GB memory I would expect things will run naturally faster no matter what and Linux might not be the key deciding factor.

I'm a Linux user, considering to get a M2 Mac Mini these days, and probably load Linux, even better and if possible, dual-boot as I do need MacOS to run some ios apps on emulator.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#64
post #20
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everything will work. Once upon time I tried to make CTF with M2 Pro, and I seriously wished that I had x86_64 Linux instead. Many of the penetration testing tools are not mainstream and they include pre-build x86_64 binaries, or are configured just to not compile with ARM, for reason unknown. And there is no time to figure out what is wrong. I know this might be a niche scenario, but still...

I cannot imagine a worse idea than downloading a binary artifact promulgated by someone in the competitive infosec community.

Not much different than installing any random pip package. They include pre-build binaries too. Infosec tools might be even safer.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#65

I'd be curious to see properly done benchmarks against top of the line Intel or AMD machines. I'd be surprised if the Mac was faster. I do understand that people want the Mac for the build quality of the laptop, not just for speed.

> I do understand that people want the Mac for the build quality of the laptop, not just for speed.

I find LG Gram laptops to be of higher build quality than Mac laptops. They may be pricier too depending on which LG Gram and which Mac you buy though.

Mac laptops feel and are incredibly brittle. They may look shiny and the screen may look gorgeous, but they're simply brittle.

People here and there like to make fun of "MILSPEC" but my MILSPEC LG Gram can sustain quite a beating. Meanwhile my M1 Mac is 1/5th the age of my LG Gram and the M1 Mac's screen is already broken.

Mac laptops are very good looking but they are not, to me, of great build quality. They're also heavier than my LG Gram.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#66
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I save 20€ per month by using my Macbook instead of desktop PC in electricity. At least 720 euros from three years.

I dont think this mac consumes much less than a amd 7950x capped at 65W.

Depends, whats the GPU on the 7950x?

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#67
post #50
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a shame Apple is Apple and you can't pay a reasonable price for RAM, otherwise these would make awesome servers.

That's the cost for 10x the memory bandwidth of the Ryzen 7950x.

That's... comically untrue. The Playstation 5 has faster memory than the M1 (448gb/s vs 200), and it was manufactured by AMD before Zen 3 or Apple Silicon even shipped. Dual-channel DDR5 should smoke the LPDDR4X in Apple Silicon in terms of memory bandwidth.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#68

Does anyone know how cost effective a base M1 Mac Studio would be compared to a PC build with comparable cost? There's also the obvious set of trade offs, such as being quiet, compact, but being unrepairable, while the PCs having nearly the opposite qualities. Is the power efficiency of Apple Silicon still a major advantage in a desktop system?

It’s about half the cost to build your own based on Ryzen thread ripper and DDR5. I’ve done this before however, it’s not ARM64. It also requires like 1000w power supply. Can you build a machine just as capable? Yes. Will it be as efficient? No. Will it be Arm? Probably not. That said, I run Apple MacBook Air as my daily so YMMV. *edit* ok a bit more than half. Chip shortage has scalpers sitting on threadrippers.

Do you need a Threadripper to compete with M1 Ultra? Ryzen 9 7950X seems pretty comparable and doesn't require a 1000W PSU unless you must pair it with a 4090 or something.

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#69

Are these ARM64 Mac using ECC? P.S: the 3440x1440 screenshot in TFA looks gorgeous on my system. Everything is using subpixel AA (terminals, code editor, browser, except for the URL, for whatever reason) but not the file manager. I wonder why that is.

> but not the file manager. I wonder why that is.

It's documented: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/-/issues/3787

Re: ARM64 Linux Workstation

#70

> Is there anything that doesn’t work? > To quote Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 3, Line 87: “No.” > Everything works… and works perfectly. That is impressive and really hard to believe! I guess I'll have to find an M1 mac Mini to try myself!

I've got an M2 Air. It is very usable, but its far from everything working perfectly.

Builtin speaker support is still a work in progress. It works if you know what you are doing and are not afraid to damage your speakers if you make a mistake. There's been progress on this though, so I expect this to be resolved sooner than later.

There's no builtin speakers in the author's mac studio though, so I'll give them a pass for this one.

Bluetooth and wifi both work, but their drivers are still buggy. I see a lot of errors in dmseg from these drivers and occasionally things stop working and require a reboot to fix.

GPU acceleration works, but there is still a lot of work to do on that driver.

External displays over the thunderbolt ports don't work yet.

Other things that don't work on the laptops: webcam, touch-id / Secure Enclave, some miscellaneous software.

Don't get me wrong, I've been able to daily drive linux only on my m2 air since August. I love the hardware and the current state of Asahi meets my needs. And its been steadily improving over the course of time. But its far from "work[ing] perfectly" yet.

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