back to article Fedora Asahi Remix 40 served on Apple Silicon

Lagging the mainstream edition by a couple of weeks, the Asahi-flavored version of Fedora 40 is here – redolent with KDE Plasma 6. Fedora Asahi Remix 40 is the variant of Fedora for Apple Mac hardware with Cupertino's in-house silicon. For now, this still means M1 and M2 Macs only. Asahi project lead Hector Martin said on …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dropbox

    Isn't it accessible via a Browser? The last time I used it, I did it that way.

    As for chrome... The number of my friends who found their systems grind to a poor imitation of a snail who found that NOT using Chrome restored their systems to normal health is way beyond the number of fingers and toes that I have.

    None of them use Chrome now. Most have moved to WaterFox.

    I'll have an M1 Macbook available for Linux at the end of the year. Can't wait to try it.

    1. Liam Proven (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Re: Dropbox

      [Author here]

      Of course it all depends on what you need it for.

      I do almost all my browsing in Firefox, but for things like videoconferencing it is often inadequate.

      I've had several roles where Slack wasn't negotiable.

      On macOS or on x86 Linux, this is not a problem, but on Arm Linux, sadly, it is.

    2. Killdolly

      Re: Dropbox

      Waterfox (arm64) downloads would seem to be scarce.

  2. theloon

    what a waste of effort!

    pointless

    1. JamesTGrant Bronze badge

      Re: what a waste of effort!

      Should there never be another new painting of a sunset? Should anyone bother learning to play an instrument? It’s unlikely they’ll get good enough to add anything of value to the repertoire….

      On the other hand, these folks are doing something interesting (at least to them, and me!) AND making it available FOR FREE for other people to play with and learn from.

      I’m gonna go play (badly) on the keyboard, and then take a walk in the sunshine. I shall enjoy both.

      1. keithpeter Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: what a waste of effort!

        In addition to your entirely sufficient reason for Asahi, there is the potential second hand market for M1, M2 apple laptops in a few years when MacOS updates are no longer available.

        Icon: won't need mine today (for a change)

        1. karlkarl Silver badge

          Re: what a waste of effort!

          > in a few years when MacOS updates are no longer available

          Worse, when the macOS DRM server is no longer running and people can no longer re-install macOS:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5OOFcnxUKY

          Unlike Windows, there are no "activation cracks" for macOS strangely. Probably the userbase?

          1. katrinab Silver badge
            Gimp

            Re: what a waste of effort!

            There’s no activation cracks for MacOS because you don’t need them, even for a hackintosh.

      2. theloon

        Re: what a waste of effort!

        Perhaps your musical skills would be better if you wasted less time on a pointless activities lol

    2. karlkarl Silver badge

      Re: what a waste of effort!

      I too dislike the Apple consumer culture.

      However think of this project more as just a development platform to get aarch64 Linux up to scratch.

      In a decade, when these machines are long since in landfill, we will potentially have some more ARM64 laptops hitting the market, and the code written here will all still be useful. By then it would have filtered through into the BSD world for those who prefer that too.

    3. Liam Proven (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Re: what a waste of effort!

      [Author here]

      > pointless

      Not at all.

      There was already an Arm port of Linux anyway, and has been for well over 25 years. There's already a whole toolchain. It just needed the drivers for this specific hardware, and a way to boot it and install it.

      For some people and for some uses, this could be more use than macOS. For others, it will be a lifeline when Apple drops support for these machines at some point in future.

      1. TVU

        Re: what a waste of effort!

        "For others, it will be a lifeline when Apple drops support for these machines at some point in future"

        ^ Exactly this, and it will ensure that perfectly good equipment can still continue to be used instead of going to landfill.

  3. Killdolly

    Have an M1 and M2 Mini both running Asahi/Debian(testing) and XFCE. Will stay that way, do not need the fedora/kde bloat/bling.

  4. Grumpy Rob

    Just remember - everyone's use case is different

    As is usual there are multiple opinions here, seemingly based on "*I* don't think it's a good idea because..". But more power to the Asahi Linux people, I say. It gives me more choice, and if that's not attractive to you, well so be it.

    I'm retired now, but a loooong time when I was working in a small office of mainly Mac users I was (and still am) a Linux zealot. So one day, as a joke, the boss handed me a brand new Macbook Air to replace my ageing Toshiba laptop (the business was very profitable, so could easily afford to do this. And all the Mac users thought it was hilarious!). I actually really liked the Apple hardware - the very early Airs were amazingly light and portable and had great graphics compared to my clunky toshiba. MacOS, not so much. So naturally I tried to install and run Linux, but ultimately failed to get anything working properly. And soon after the screen stopped working - maybe because the old X11 drivers had cooked the graphics chip??

    Now I have a lot more time on my hands I thought it might be interesting to try Linux on Mac again, just for my own entertainment. But when I visited the Apple section of a computer shop I was really disappointed in the latest Apple laptops. For me their main selling point was lightness, but the latest "Airs" weigh a ton. WTH? And billions of pixels on an 11 inch screen are wasted on my old eyes. So I'll stick to my current Thinkpad, which is reasonably light, and has a good 1920x1080 screen. Runs Linu Mint and everything "just works". Fine for my more frequent travels.

    To get back on topic, for me the best thing about Asahi is that in future it may save a few ageing Apple laptops going to landfill, and that is a "GOOD THING".

    1. benpedras

      Re: Just remember - everyone's use case is different

      The M1 macbook air is light and thin. Also v. powerful and runs great with Asahi.

  5. a7i3n

    You critics missed something...

    I'm running Sway on my Asahi-Fedora installation (MacBook Pro). So Sway is an option. One other thing missed in the article was the fact that when you run Asahi all the Apple telemetry stops running as well. Probably one of the reasons it runs so fast. And finally, not a waste of time at all. 1. Keeps the Mac from ending up in landfill. 2. Privacy protection and a hedge over Apple's planned AI invasion. 3. It's Linux... As far as Wayland goes, if you don't like it don't use it. As an old guy, I remember that X11 wasn't so hot at first either, but that didn't stop me from using it and learning. If you don't like Macs use one of the new Arm laptops coming out. Just remember Windows will be running an AI based spyware that will capture everything you do. I don't waste my time on anything (except maybe writing this). I'm also a musician (50 years, three instruments) I have recording credits and a slot on a album that went platinum. I started as an amateur. Bless all you folks who play music for the simple joy of it! We need more musicians, poets, artists of all kinds. Whining self-anointed critics, not so much.

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