AAA gaming on Asahi Linux

While Linux can’t mix page sizes between processes, it can virtualize another Arm Linux kernel with a different page size. So we run games inside a tiny virtual machine using muvm, passing through devices like the GPU and game controllers. The hardware is happy because the system is 16K, the game is happy because the virtual machine is 4K

Insane work, holy shit

31

tfw gaming on reverse engineered linux is better than macos on macs.

12

Hopefully we get DP over USBC soon on the m2 Mac studios

4

It's absolutely mental that a reverse-engineered hardware stack, with a bespoke gpu driver in Rust, achieved this kind of performance, in this amount of time. God tier skills, between all the engineers involved in the project

85

Alyssa is an absolute legend. Every time I read a banger blog post I check the author, and on multiple sites she comes up as the OP.

69

She makes me rethink my life choice. Lol

20

I liked how each of the sections ended with a different game that she's gotten running so far. It makes the article feel like a progressively bigger flex, which, of course, it is. Awesome to see this work progressing!

45

Maybe I'm too entrenched in FOSS political vision, but why devote these tremendous efforts to improve products of a company like Apple. I don't understand the motivation behind Asahi linux, except "just because it can be done" ie academic purpose

23

It enables people to use the hardware they already have

14
It saves ewaste. In 6 years, will macOS still be supported on these machines? Maybe. Will an open source distro be supported? If it's still thriving, yeah.

12
Absolutely nothing comes close to the thinness and lightness, combined with battery and performance of my M2 Air. And that's not to mention that Apple's touchpads are still so far ahead of everyone else that I'd like to laugh about it, but it's too embarrassing for that. It's not like I'm not aware of the linux/windows alternatives, it's that there simply are no alternatives...I'd rather deal with Apple's shit software instead of everyone else's subpar hardware, because software is changeable.

Also, since the Asahi team actually knows what they're doing, it turns out that their linux support on Apple Silicon is often better in a lot of ways than most windows-centric laptops. They take a long time to support certain hardware capabilities, but once they do you can be sure that it works flawlessly. Can't say the same about any other laptop I owned before (although Framework, System 76 and Tuxedo laptops are probably good in that regard).

Also, while the keyboard on my Dell XPS broke a whopping 5 times in the last few years, the Macbook Air has yet to show any signs of wear. The reason I got a Macbook is because I need to get work done and need a reliable machine for that. And what can I say, my god has it ever been reliable.

9
- Thank you for detailing this. I'm no fan of OSX or Apple the company but the quality of their laptop hardware is undeniable. They're really good at it.
  
  6
In my field of work, I'm stuck with the Apple ecosystem anyway. So having the chance to run linux on my M1 for all my personnal project is awesome. Also, as much as I hate Apple, those computers are just absolute beast in term of processing power, battery and design.

7
- And longevity. I have a 2011 MBP thats now running Debian and is still a tank. I’ve had two MacBooks since I got it but the damn thing refuses to die.
  
  My daily laptop is an M2 Air which is ridiculously powerful for my needs, so when Apple drop OS support for it I’ll put Asahi on it and keep it trucking until the wheels fall off.
  
  And that 2011 will still be going.
  
  5
It's not improving it cause apple can use it. It's improving cause people can use it even after apple is not supporting it or don't like apple's OS.

41
- To me it's similar to buying illegal animal products and showcasing it for public awareness
  
  "It's not to support the poachers but to raise awareness"
  
  -13
x86 isn't open either and a lot of people like the M1's efficiency (I'm an Asahi Linux user)

20
- How is the battery life on Asahi Linux compared to MacOS?
  
  4
I agree. There is literally 0 reason to buy anything from Apple when there are much better and much cheaper options that are already well supported by GNU/Linux. I will never understand people who will go out of their way to waste money on the next big thing from Apple only to get Linux on it.

2
- M1 is far from the latest, you can pick them up real cheap used now. I would need to do some real research before recommending my Intel mac strategy of buying locked systems that just need a reinstall because most pawn shops don't know what they have, but I'm sure if it works then that would be the best used option possible.
  
  3
- I own an M1 Air running Asahi Linux because I heard very good things about the laptop when I got it and it was a reasonable price. I don't have a Framework to test alongside it so I don't know how it compares with the latest x86 chips. The M1 touchpad is awesome, aesthetics are great with it being light and the material being a lot more durable than my HP Envy laptop that kept getting random dents, doesn't have the hinge misalignment issue, screen is also good. Battery life and performance is great on macOS, not as impressive on Linux (performance is still good aside from missing hardware processing support for certain things, I do end up bottlenecking it when compiling Rust programs), lack of fan noise is nice but also bad for cooling, with Linux it tends to get warm and throttle. Asahi Linux is very impressive but still missing microphone support and doesn't support FDE which is extremely precarious, harder to use alternative distros to Fedora Workstation. Repairability is shit, the keyboard is also shit.
  
  The newer M* models don't have good Asahi Linux support and look overpriced and I don't even know if the Air line still offers 16GB RAM models which is a must have (32GB is better). At this point in time if my Macbook were to randomly die my next laptop probably won't be a Macbook (unless I replace it with another used M1), also I wouldn't recommend it to most people right now because of issues with Asahi Linux being under development like the two I pointed out earlier.
  
  2
I hate macOS therefor it’s useful cause I like to tinker. And make things do things.

2

This is absolutely insane. Yesterday i went to github to look what they are cooking and what they have done the last few months is on another level. Props to anyone involved.

23

I can't stress this enough: people who work on this project are among the smartest people in the world, damn

16

Yoo those overpriced macs can game

-1

AAA gaming on Asahi Linux - Asahi Linux