Bonum Certa Men Certa

Buying Apple PCs to Run GNU/Linux is a Bad Idea (It Always Was)

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Nov 02, 2023

Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer.

Why You Shouldn’t Buy a Mac for Linux.

Meanwhile, on the Fediverse, I found this.

A Mac for Linux

A Mac for Linux 2

Buy a Mac! Run Linux on the piece of shit! It’ll be FUN!

Just when I got done complaining about the Lenovo firmware garbage, with just two examples, Apple proves why they’re not a real option.

In the more serious of these two cases, they can’t even reliably update RecoveryOS, which is sort of like the “Recovery WIM” partition in Windows-land. It’s where you usually end up if your computer is fucked, and I think it can do some things to repair macOS or get a fresh copy on your computer by downloading one from Apple.

The trouble with Apple’s buggy software is that when they screw up RecoveryOS it’s no longer safe to install Asahi Linux, and it wouldn’t be able to recover macOS either, likely, and you’d have to just take it to an Apple store and hope they do something for you.

Maybe even charge you even though it was because of their bug.

There are many bugs in Apple products, especially their most recent releases, and a lot of these are firmware bugs. They’re in there using the “Apple Tax” on their shareholder dividends and marketing, and I really don’t think their computers are a lot higher quality than a Lenovo.

And it was these Asahi Linux people that were a major push for Rust support in the Linux kernel. Almost the only project using it much is to get Apple hardware working, when all of the effort is most likely futile anyway. Apple has gone from m68k, to ppc, to x86, to arm, and if they want to do it again they will.

They don’t support anything. Even when they were on x86, they pointlessly dropped 32-bit x86 application support for no reason. If you say something is the way to run programs, you ought to support it for decades unless it was simply so horrible it’s impossible to live with.

Apple didn’t have to do that to their Intel Mac customers, they just dropped it with no warning a few years ahead of getting off x86 because they’re Apple.

Things like this, and all of these ridiculous bugs, are why Apple computers will never be anything beyond a joke.

They pissed Ken Thompson (one of the inventors of UNIX, and C) off enough to just move from a Mac to Linux on a Raspberry Pi, and that’s before the RPi 5 came out with 4 times as much processing power, double the RAM, and better graphics.

Once you put Linux on a Mac, you’ve still got a bad computer.

The drivers are reverse engineered, and do not support the majority of Linux applications. They are particularly deficient in graphics, where you’re stuck with OpenGL ES.

Not even real OpenGL. Just a deprecated subset that might be useful for a dumb Android phone game. On a desktop, almost completely useless except maybe for desktop effects.

From my understanding, you don’t get real OpenGL, and you sure as Hell don’t get Vulkan. The hardware may not even support Vulkan.

In my testing with Intel Xe GPUs, the Vulkan renderers on games usually run in the ballpark of twice as fast as the OpenGL ones.

You couldn’t run really expect to run Yuzu, the Nintendo Switch emulator, on OpenGL ES on Linux on a Mac.

First off, they’d have to write a new renderer, then they’d have to port the program itself to the M series CPUs, and it’s a pretty tall order, and is likely to happen on some new RPi before a Mac ever becomes a viable development target.

Someone asked about Yuzu on a Mac with Linux, and the answer was “Port it yourself. There’s source code.” and that’s where the conversation stopped. I run Yuzu every day almost, on a 2020 Lenovo laptop.

People who develop Linux programs like these do it because they’re using hardware that is a development target. So when you buy a Mac to run Asahi, you’ve got something you can’t even use for use cases that someone might target Mac OS itself for.

Some people have asked about getting rid of the macOS entirely and running Linux as the only OS.

From what I’ve gathered from the developers, this is possible, but they strongly advise against it. You can’t update the Mac’s firmware without macOS, so they recommend resizing the macOS partition which means it’s wasting some of the disk even if you never boot into macOS for anything.

While not being able to update PC firmware after you get rid of Windows, this isn’t usually a big problem. If your computer’s in warranty to where the manufacturer has to support a fucked BIOS update or doing something so outrageous you can’t live with it, you update it once on the way out the door and generally never have to do it again. Linux will work.

On an “Apple Silicon” Mac, system firmware is a much much larger problem.

From the description of it I have from Asahi developers, I understand that you may be required to use macOS to update the Mac’s firmware (1) so that you can update Linux at all past a certain point, or (2) so you can use some feature (like more OpenGL ES features) at some future date, which may not be usable without a firmware update.

So you’ve basically got an expensive pet rock that’s even more of a nightmare to deal with than a PC. And in return, you get all these Apple bugs and less software.

When they don’t think PC users are listening, the Mac heads bitch and moan about bad design that’s pissing them off. Even JWZ does it, but for some reason thinks Linux is stuck with the same issues he experienced in 2008.

The Mac is, sadly, not an option for Linux. If anything, it is polluting and bloating Linux with a meme language that people are using to write garbage with, and that could metastasize and become a problem for Linux later on.

This is why I briefly considered buying a Mac and then talked myself out of it. You’ll never actually free it from the really awful OS it came with like you can with a PC, it’s ungodly expensive, and it’s got more laughable Linux support than a $100 RPi 5 computer I can buy at an electronics store in Chicago.

What’s unbelievable, to me, is how much Apple has regressed from the point my editor, Howard, was sending me “Mac-formatted” floppies in the late 90s, and that people want to use Linux on this.

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Sheriff of Cork & Debian Edward Brocklesby or Brockelsby Street confusion
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
"Conviction for a Crime he Did Not Commit," Said Jennifer Robinson
Robinson is the kind of woman accomplisher we should look up to
An Extended Statement on Julian Assange
Assange's release was not important enough to "make the cut" for News, only "tweets" and other Social Control Media nonsense.
Microsoft Falling to New Lows in Aruba
Being below 20% in America is the exception, not the norm
 
Debian Project Still Has a Lot of Explaining to Do...
Assange was actually a Debian Developer
[Meme] When Ian (of Debian) Was Still Alive
I wasn't always a Debian Developer...
"Julian Assange is Free"
Published ~34 minutes ago
GNU/Linux Userbase Surging in Iceland
Maybe there's something big going on, like people deleting Vista 11 in droves and installing GNU/Linux instead
Jennifer Robinson: "After 14 years of legal battles, Julian Assange can go home a free man”
She explains the implications for the general freedom of the press
Judge: Assange Leaves Court 'A Free Man'
on his way to Australia now
Julian Assange verdict: guilty, not guilty or blackmailed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
12 Months Ago the FSF Said It Would Issue a Statement on IBM Taking RHEL Proprietary
Statement never happened
Microsoft's Bing Fall From 2.6% Before LLM Hype to Just 0.79% Right Now in Russia
statCounter's data
[Meme] Speaking Truth to Power (Still Easier in the West Than in Russia/BRIC)
Different people, different outcomes
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 25, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 25, 2024
The Plot to Silence (or Deplatform) Techrights
This past month I've been spending time working on the text of an online publication
[Meme] Julian Assange's Lawyers Need to Ensure Assange Maintains Freedom to Publish
Let's ensure he can continue to publish
Trying to Make Blogs (Independent and Mostly Decentralised Platforms) What Comes After Social Control Media
Social Control Networks 'stole the thunder' of blogs, but can we get back to blogs?
Julian Assange Has Landed
There will probably be some press interviews some time this month or next month
L is for Linux and Lao
Lao should really have something called LaOS
[Meme] Need More Sites Like Wikileaks, Not Less
On US government vs Wikileaks
We Know Who Stands to Gain From the Demise of the Press
the Assange release was a win for his family, but likely a dire loss for press freedom
[Meme] Think Twice Before Exposing or 'Embarrassing' Powerful People and Interests
The United States government has basically won the Assange case
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is Openwashing, Ben Cotton (Fedora) Acknowledges It, Fails to See How Bribes Led to That
As if... it "just happened"
Links 25/06/2024: RAM Stress, COVID Graft
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/06/2024: Hey Hi Punditry and Right to Repair
Links for the day
Links 25/06/2024: Julian Assange Freed From Prison, "AI" Bubble Imploding Some More
Links for the day
Three Points About Julian Assange Plea Deal
There is still a secret problem
[Meme] EFF Became a 'Bunch of Pussies' Working for GAFAM (and Sponsored by GAFAM)
It won't protect people, except very rich people's interests
IBM Does Not Care for the Blind (Wayland Harms Accessibility)
What a punch in the gut
Who Is This Backup FOR, the NSA?
As Admfubar put it, "backups for everyone..."
Tux Machines Past 20: Still Thriving
Now 20 years and 2 weeks old
[Meme] Microsoft is Coming /Home
"LOL, REAL SORRY!!!"
Microsoft's Siege of Libya Coming to an End
One might be tempted to guess the users deleted Windows and installed something else
Gemini Links 25/06/2024: Old Computer Challenge; An Opinionated GNU/Linux Guide
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 24, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, June 24, 2024
IEEE Computer Society on Andrew Tanenbaum, Winner of ACM Award, Who Also Inspired Linux Development
10 years ago
New Talk by Dr. Richard Stallman Published Two Days Ago By CeSIUM - Centro de Estudantes de Engenharia Informática da Universidade do Minho (Portugal)
The FSF no longer mentions Richard Stallman's talks, but we will
FSF Looking to Raise Money by Adding 200 New Members by July 19
The FSF is in good shape, according to Alexandre Oliva
Not Only Does It Not Add Security... (UEFI as a 'Bug Door')
SecureCore?
Data From Monaco Should Alarm Microsoft
Just how many people are deleting Windows and installing something else this year?
Name the Threats and Threat Actors
Looking back to 2006, there was Novell and gregkh (partly salaried by Microsoft), so these are familiar territories
Linux in Central Sahel (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger)
Vast area, vast number of "Linux users" (if one counts Android as such)
[Meme] Gagging One's Own Staff as a Signal of Corporate Distress
Censorship at Microsoft
The "Other" SPLC
You know you're winning the debate when censorship is explored
Staying the Course
censorship isn't easy against sites that understand ways to resist it
The 'All-Seeing' Microsoft Eye
Microsofters are observing us closely
Links 24/06/2024: Long COVID and "How I Write Blogs"
Links for the day
Microsoft: By Default, Destroy Linux
Here is what the very "polite" Microsoft Boccassi had to say
Allegations That Microsoft is Covering Up Employee Dissatisfaction and Using a Survey to Catch 'Risk' to the Cult Mentality
This favours or gradually socially-engineers a company for sociopathy
'Linux Hint' Inactive for Nearly a Month (It Used to be Very Active)
Their Twitter account hasn't been active for a long time and it's not too clear what's going on
An Unexpected GNU/Linux Trend
Burkina Faso is changing and not just politically
Android (Linux) at New Highs in Burkina Faso, Now Measured at 72% (Windows Was Measured at 98% 15 Years Ago)
based on this month's estimates
With 0.76% for ChromeOS and 3.7% for GNU/Linux (4.5% Total) Burkina Faso Approaches 5% for 'Linux'
More if one counts Android as "Linux"
Gemini Links 24/06/2024: Being Dull and OpenSSH Autoban
Links for the day
EPO Issues in The Hague
a report dated 4 days ago about a meeting that took place 12 days ago
[Meme] Garbage in, Garbage Out (EPO Patent Quality)
"Get back to work"
When the Employer Makes You Too Sick to Go to Work (New EPO Document)
"registering when you are sick"
Perens on a Stick
Remember what Novell did and how few (barely anyone) sided with Novell
Andrew Tanenbaum Gets an Award for His Work on MINIX
ACM one week ago
Twitter's Fall to Irrelevancy in Europe
Musk bought a dud
[Meme] 'Useless' Kids of EPO Examiners
malnourished?
Granting Loads of Monopolies in Europe (to Foreign Corporations of Epic Size and Far Too Much Power Inside Europe) is Vastly More Important Than Raising European Kids Properly?
"Efficiency" first? Whose? Corporations or families? No wonder so many young families are hesitant to have any kids these days; that's particularly true in east Asia and also in north America, not just Europe
[Meme] Putin's Red Flags
Firefox ESR or Firefox USSR
The Corporate/Mainstream Media and Even Social Control Media is Distorting the Record About What Mozilla Actually Did (It Originally Surrendered to Vladimir Putin)
Mozilla being avoided for purely technical reasons (sites not being compatible with it) is one thing. Foolishly, Mozilla is giving people more political reasons to also shun Mozilla. This is suicide.
GNU/Linux Up Some More This Morning, Windows Down Sharply Even in Rich Countries
Microsoft is in trouble in the Muslim world
United Arab Emirates (UAE) Rising... Towards 5% for ChromeOS and GNU/Linux
the latest numbers show it growing from about 0.1% to around 2.4% for GNU/Linux, plus 2.01% for Chromebooks (ChromeOS), i.e. about 5% in total.
Techrights in the Coming Decade: The Free Speech (Online) Angle
Free speech is a fundamental tenet of a free society
Links 24/06/2024: New Research, New Attacks on Justices Sceptical of Patent Maximalists, European Commission for Copyright Maximalists
Links for the day
[Meme] 12 Years a Fedora Volunteer
IBM gives me a 'free' Fedora badge as recognition
IBM Slavery: Not a New Problem
When IBM got rid of Ben Cotton it showed the world how much it valued Fedora
Why They Want to Abolish Master/Slave Terminology (Because This is What They're Turned Free Software Into)
It used to be about community; GAFAM turned that into exploitation and worse
Roy and Rianne's Righteously Royalty-free RSS Reader (R.R.R.R.R.R.) Version 0.2 is Released
They say summer "officially" started some days ago
Torvalds' Number Two Quit Linux a Decade Ago and Has Since Then Earned an Honorary Doctorate
Revisiting Fuzix and Alan Cox
GNU/Linux Reaches All-Time High in Tunisia
Based on statCounter
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 23, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, June 23, 2024
Edward Brocklesby (ejb) & Debian: Hacking expulsion cover-up in proximity to Oxford and GCHQ
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
You Know the Microsoft Products Really Suck When...
"Qualcomm and Microsoft go 'beyond the call of duty' to stop independent Copilot+ PC reviews"
IBM and "Regime Change"
Change of regime is not the same as freedom
Microsoft Windows in Nicaragua: From 98% to Less Than 25%
Operating System Market Share Nicaragua
Techrights in the Coming Decade: The Community Angle
Somebody needs to call them out on their BS
Techrights in the Coming Decade: The Software Angle
Gemini Protocol has just turned 5 - i.e. roughly the same age as our Git repositories
Techrights in the Coming Decade: The Patent Angle
Next month marks 10 years since we began covering EPO leaks
Wookey, Intrigeri, Cryptie & Debian pseudonyms beyond Edward Brocklesby
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock