Tuxedo Pulse Gen 3

> They don't support variations of software at all. They support the hardware. [...] Asahi does not need to support applications at all.

From their FAQ page[1]:

> We will eventually release a remix of Arch Linux ARM, packaged for installation by end-users, as a distribution of the same name. The majority of the work resides in hardware support, drivers, and tools, and it will be upstreamed to the relevant projects. The distribution will be a convenient package for easy installation by end-users and give them access to bleeding-edge versions of the software we develop.

As distro maintainers, it is their job to make sure the applications they package work on the hardware they support. This includes submitting patches upstream when that is not the case, as application maintainers likely wouldn't want to support such a niche environment directly. So, yes, they rely on volunteers to fix issues, but they will likely have to support many applications themselves.

There is still a lot of broken software, as this list[2] is surely not exhaustive.

Regardless, all this amounts to less choice of software for the user. The Asahi team has already decided to stop supporting Xorg, and say what you will about Xorg, there will be many applications they realistically can't or won't support for whatever reason.

> Same deal for any other hardware manufacturer. [...] Really not much different to other hardware manufacturers since Linux started.

No, it's very different. First of all, the amount of Linux hackers who volunteered to reverse engineer the wide variety of hardware was orders of magnitude larger than the Asahi team. Even if they limit the amount of devices they support, modern computers are far more complex than in the early days of Linux. Regardless of how talented the Asahi team is, maintaining all the hardware of a modern computer is a sisyphean task for a small group of volunteers.

Secondly, hardware manufacturers could see the benefit of getting their hardware to run in Linux, and many eventually took over support from volunteers. Apple has shown no interest in doing so, and has historically been hostile to open source.

> Asahi devs have made it clear that Apple has chosen to avoid blocking installation of other operating systems.

The fact they allow installation of other operating systems today, doesn't mean that this decision couldn't change in the future. Services are a large part of their business, and allowing a group of hackers to use their hardware without being part of their software ecosystem may seem like a non-issue today, but if this group grows larger assuming projects like Asahi are successful, this might become a considerable loss of income which wouldn't be in their best interest.

> Apple has no issue with it.

Can you point me to an official ackgnowledgment of Asahi Linux by Apple? Or any indication that leaving this door open was a sign of good will, instead of a lack of interest in closing it? What makes you think they wouldn't eventually lock down Macs in the same way they do iPhones and iPads?

> ARM is a stable well supported platform for Linux

It's really not. A lot of software works, but when it doesn't, the user is SOL. As you can see on their Broken Software page[2], the major issue is precisely with AArch64 support. This should improve eventually, and Asahi is certainly a torchbearer in this scenario, but today it's yet another hurdle of using Apple hardware.

[1]: https://asahilinux.org/about/#is-this-a-linux-distribution

[2]: https://github.com/AsahiLinux/docs/wiki/Broken-Software

I borrowed a car that did not have a stick supporting the gear selector. Instead the gear was selected by a slide switch in the plane of the top of the center console. In my muscle memory, that is not where that function is.

What do I win in exchange for getting accustomed to this?

> Also, how do they know that "Apple does not intend to lock down what OS you can use on Macs"

They don't. And it really doesn't matter to some people. The current hardware is not locked down, therefore it can always run Linux. Future devices are not guaranteed to work, but those do not exist today.

> Buying a $2k machine to realize it doesn't support my workflow

You're simply not the target user. The people who are enthusiastically using Asahi know what to expect and are happy with it as it runs the software they need to use today. Of course it is not a mainstream option that every Linux user can use.

> that it will continue to work for at least a few years.

Once the hardware in your device is reverse engineered and drivers developed for it, that is done and will continue to work for a long time. The risk is future devices (Apple M6, M7, etc).

> What do I win in exchange for getting accustomed to this?

Ask the shitheads placing PrtScr in the place of ContextMenu?

But this is irrelevant, TS states:

> I'm used to ANSI with single row Enter and I don't seem to be able to switch to ISO (in the past I was forced to order and replace keyboard in my laptop because of that

The size and form of the steering wheel, pedals and stick varies, yet they are located in the same place on a half-liter ultracompact and on a 5t lorry.

Since 90s I had used all the types of keyboards, with wildly different Enter-key shapes, with different "/" key placement, even with Escape being not the leftmost key. I used keyboards without any marks (and that wasn't Das Keyboard) and I used all the kinds of shitty keyboards (not including notebook ones). Aaaand I used all the notebook keyboards what some fuck decided to fuck with layout with absolutely no fucking reason. Oh, and let's not forget the greatest invention in 21st century: replacing the Function keys with whatever shitty function by default, because you reaaaaallly need to change the volume, monitor brightness, enable\disable wireless network and change the output to the external screen every couple of seconds, yes? Even the notebook in the topic has the power button where it should not be at all and which would actually break my muscle memory, because most sane notebook layouts have the Delete key there.

But I never ever had the trouble finding the Enter key on those keyboards. And I never had the trouble to actually adapt even to the shittiest keyboards. Well, except this PrtScr shit on the ThinkPads but even them.

Claiming a human being can't adapt to a slightly different form of the Enter key is like claiming what you can't drive the car because the steering wheel is slightly smaller than in your previous car.

The ANSI keyboard option is planned for beginning of next year iirc