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Can anyone point me to a good report of the current working status and known drawbacks of Asahi on Apple Silicon? Would there ever be a reason to run it on a Ma

Can anyone point me to a good report of the current working status and known drawbacks of Asahi on Apple Silicon? Would there ever be a reason to run it on a Mac Mini or Apple desktop device? Or at that point would you just get a Linux box?

ncrmro 8mo ago
I’ve managed to get NixOS running on an 8gb MacBook air which tools a bit of tweaks but asahi installer sets everything up where you can boot and install from NixOS
- kreetx 8mo ago
  Could you expand/explain, you install Asahi first and then NixOS?
  - volemo 8mo ago
    Asahi includes a shell script that you run from macOS before installation to properly partition the storage (it’s quite involved). I guess, GP ran the script and then just booted from Nix ISO and installed to the new partition.
  - 0xADD1E 8mo ago
    More or less- Due to the amount of unusual requirements for installing on Apple hardware (such as being kicked off from macOS, to name the tip of the iceberg) the Asahi installer gets used for most (all?) distros running on Apple Silicon. https://asahilinux.org/docs/alt/policy/#installation-procedu https://asahilinux.org/docs/alt/policy/#installation-procedu... edit: The minimal UEFI part of the Asahi installer specifically sets up a “normal” environment that other distros (like Nix) can use, it doesn’t actually install a full distro like Asahi Fedora
    - kreetx 8mo ago
      Thanks! What has your experience been thus far? Apple makes great hardware (even more so now with their own CPUs) but I've steered clear of it simply because I run Linux. Last I checked the GPU wasn't fully supported and there were also concerns of of efficiency, that power draw is generally higher than macOS, thus the same hardware on Linux doesn't have the same benefit as with macOS.
kreetx 8mo ago
https://asahilinux.org/fedora/#device-support https://asahilinux.org/fedora/#device-support
dylan604 8mo ago
> Or at that point would you just get a Linux box? What exactly is a Linux box? If you're running Linux on an M3, is it not now a Linux box?
- deleted 8mo ago
  [deleted]
emodendroket 8mo ago
Considering how far behind they are of new releases of hardware I'd imagine the most appealing use case is going to be trying to squeeze some more life out of outdated hardware that struggles running the latest Apple software. But that's kind of the sweet spot for a Linux desktop anyway, isn't it?
- swiftcoder 8mo ago
  Does an M3 struggle to run the latest Apple software? I'm running an M2 Pro as my daily driver, and I doubt this thing will need replacing this side of ~5 years
  - sysworld 8mo ago
    I've got a MacBook Air M2 and it's still zoom'n along fine. I did get 24GB RAM, which I'm sure helps... run Chrome :)
  - zbentley 8mo ago
    Same with my M1. I haven’t noticed anything struggling, even with tons of expensive apps running. Tahoe slowed it down to shit (and I’m not just talking about electron-gate), but Tahoe slowed everyone down to shit. Local models are slowish, I guess, but that’s pretty niche and they’re still usable. Nothing else is even noticeably laggy at all compared to my partner’s M4. It’s got 64GB so that helps.
  - emodendroket 8mo ago
    No. But that laptop could easily last ten+ years. If they're just starting to get it working now I doubt the experience is going to have all the kinks worked out for a while anyhow.

ncrmro 8mo ago

I’ve managed to get NixOS running on an 8gb MacBook air which tools a bit of tweaks but asahi installer sets everything up where you can boot and install from NixOS

kreetx 8mo ago
Could you expand/explain, you install Asahi first and then NixOS?
- volemo 8mo ago
  Asahi includes a shell script that you run from macOS before installation to properly partition the storage (it’s quite involved). I guess, GP ran the script and then just booted from Nix ISO and installed to the new partition.
- 0xADD1E 8mo ago
  More or less- Due to the amount of unusual requirements for installing on Apple hardware (such as being kicked off from macOS, to name the tip of the iceberg) the Asahi installer gets used for most (all?) distros running on Apple Silicon. https://asahilinux.org/docs/alt/policy/#installation-procedu https://asahilinux.org/docs/alt/policy/#installation-procedu... edit: The minimal UEFI part of the Asahi installer specifically sets up a “normal” environment that other distros (like Nix) can use, it doesn’t actually install a full distro like Asahi Fedora
  - kreetx 8mo ago
    Thanks! What has your experience been thus far? Apple makes great hardware (even more so now with their own CPUs) but I've steered clear of it simply because I run Linux. Last I checked the GPU wasn't fully supported and there were also concerns of of efficiency, that power draw is generally higher than macOS, thus the same hardware on Linux doesn't have the same benefit as with macOS.

kreetx 8mo ago

https://asahilinux.org/fedora/#device-support https://asahilinux.org/fedora/#device-support

dylan604 8mo ago

> Or at that point would you just get a Linux box? What exactly is a Linux box? If you're running Linux on an M3, is it not now a Linux box?

deleted 8mo ago
[deleted]

emodendroket 8mo ago

Considering how far behind they are of new releases of hardware I'd imagine the most appealing use case is going to be trying to squeeze some more life out of outdated hardware that struggles running the latest Apple software. But that's kind of the sweet spot for a Linux desktop anyway, isn't it?

swiftcoder 8mo ago
Does an M3 struggle to run the latest Apple software? I'm running an M2 Pro as my daily driver, and I doubt this thing will need replacing this side of ~5 years
- sysworld 8mo ago
  I've got a MacBook Air M2 and it's still zoom'n along fine. I did get 24GB RAM, which I'm sure helps... run Chrome :)
- zbentley 8mo ago
  Same with my M1. I haven’t noticed anything struggling, even with tons of expensive apps running. Tahoe slowed it down to shit (and I’m not just talking about electron-gate), but Tahoe slowed everyone down to shit. Local models are slowish, I guess, but that’s pretty niche and they’re still usable. Nothing else is even noticeably laggy at all compared to my partner’s M4. It’s got 64GB so that helps.
- emodendroket 8mo ago
  No. But that laptop could easily last ten+ years. If they're just starting to get it working now I doubt the experience is going to have all the kinks worked out for a while anyhow.