Alex from The Temple of Ao Fei
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Now, the M1 Mac can run native Linux smoothly.
The Alpha version of the Asahi Linux project, built for Apple's self-developed chips, has been released.
In the era of Intel CPUs for Macs, users have figured out ways to install Linux on Macs by partitioning hard disks or using virtual machines such as Parallels.
But when it comes to Apple's self-developed M1 processor, everything has to start all over again.
The goal of Asahi Linux is to make Apple's M1 series Of Mac users truly embrace Linux.
So what is it like to install a native Linux system on an Apple computer?
A YouTuber with 300,000+ followers tested it himself on his M1 Mac.
After a series of evaluations, the little brother said: True fragrance!
Running certain programs on the exact same hardware, Linux is even faster than macOS!
And Mac computers don't look as closed as iPhones and iPad systems.
The evidence is that Apple officials will also actively fix bugs found on bootloader launcher for users.
So how did the little brother get the M1 dual system?
Preparations before installation
Sharpen the knife without mistakenly chopping wood. Bloggers remind friends who want to try Asahi Linux, be sure to see the installation requirements first, and it is best to choose a computer without important files to operate.
The Asahi Linux official website also gives detailed installation instructions:
Otherwise, if something goes wrong, your PC will most likely fail to start.
One might wonder, wouldn't it be okay to install this operating system on a virtual machine like Parallels Desktop?
Asahi official replied that Asahi Linux is tailor-made for Apple hardware, while Parallels Desktop is virtually a generic ARM architecture suitable for installing other Linux distributions.
Just when the brother bought a new Mac Studio, the old M1 mac mini can be used to do experiments
△Mac mini M1 on the left and Mac Studio M1 on the right
In the end, he successfully installed Asahi Linux in one go.
After the system boots, you can see that Asahi Linux is using the KDE Plasma desktop environment.
Video playback performance
Without using a GPU accelerator, the blogger played a YouTube video on the Asahi Linux system on the M1 Mac mini.
He was pleased to find that full-screen HD videos with 0 frames dropped could be played here, and the UI has always been very sensitive, not as dull as many other ARM-based single-board machines.
Bug fix speed
Next, the blogger tested the network performance using Iperf and found a bug in Asahi Linux.
Asahi set up the network adapter to use a single PCI Express channel, the ultrafast network of 10 gigabits was limited to only 1.5 gigabits.
The brother fed this vulnerability back to Asahi's chat area.
After a few minutes, the developer fixed the bug and said it would work for all Asahi users.
Reduce CPU load
Bloggers have found that the load on the CPU increases by around 25% as soon as the Graphics Performance Monitor is turned on, but if the command line 'htop' given by Asahi Linux is executed, the cpu load plummets to 1%.
Running speed
The bloggers tested different systems against the benchmark of "recompiling the Raspberry Pi Linux kernel".
It turned out that Linux on the M1 mini was 40% faster than macOS! That's a speed comparable to running macOS on a Mac Studio that has twice the performance core.
In terms of price, the lowest price of the M1 Mac mini is $699, while arm development versions with luxury points such as HoneyComb LX2 alone cost $750 for a board.
So, if you want an Arm computer that can run Linux, the M1 Mac mini itself is a good choice.
In addition, a friend of the bloggers, Michael Larabel, also tested macOS and Asahi Linux on the M1 mini using the Phronix suite.
For some benchmarks that test computer performance, such as LevelDB, macOS performs better.
But in other areas, such as WebP image encoding, Asahi Linux has advantages.
It is worth noting that At present, Asahi Linux is still in the testing stage, and it will be up to time to prove how Asahi Linux vs macOS will change in the future.
What exactly is Asahi Linux?
So where did Asahi Linux come about?
In late 2020, Asahi Linux was launched by programmer Hector Martin.
Hector Martin is a cyber security expert and veteran operating system porter, providing unofficial open source support to port Linux systems for a variety of devices, including the Nintendo Wii and Sony PS series of game consoles.
In January 2021, the Asahi Linux project was crowdfunded and officially launched; the beta version was launched in March this year
According to its official website, the name Asahi also has a certain origin: it means "Asahi" in Japanese, and it also represents the apple variety "Asahi", which is the Japanese name of the Mcintosh apple, where the Mac system name originates.
At present, Asahi Linux supports the following functions, including CPU frequency conversion, RTC, etc.
Of course, Asahi Linux, which is still in the development stage, still has many places to improve, such as: can not use Bluetooth, no GPU acceleration, etc.
The development team hopes that in the future, Linux will not only run on M1 series machines, but also run on individual Mac machines as an everyday operating system.
High hopes have been placed before it was officially released
Under the official account of Asahi Linux, netizens on the extranet have sent their blessings.
Great, we fruit machine users will also have a superb dual system!
Some people even like the blogger above, can't wait to get started.
Currently, many programmers and interested parties are involved in testing Linux tests and making some practical suggestions.
The wisdom of the masses is infinite, interested readers go and try it!
Reference link: [1].https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2p_fGuldt0[2].https://asahilinux.org/2022/03/asahi-linux-alpha-release/