And that’s how I decided to install Debian as my next Linux VM (just got back into VMs in the past week with Proxmox). We’ll see how it does replacing my former favorite, CentOS, now that IBM / Red Shat have borked things up on that end.
Alyssa Rosenzweig is a badass low-lever coder. I believe she’s been responsible for a huge amount of the video driver work for Asahi. What an ass-kicker.
I think those reporting success running Linux on old hw should state the distro and window manager that they’re using if they want to provide useful feedback. I’m not in that group, but Tiny Linux comes to mind. Possibly Alpine? Probably better info to be had from daily-drivers.
Yes, you should look for hand-holding tutorials. I don’t mean that to slight you. The first time I installed Linux was way before the internet was fast or full of easy to access info and way before most had access to a secondary device (like a phone) when hitting a roadblock.
It booted to a text prompt. I had no idea how to login (probably root / root or root / password or root / [blank], but htf would I know that?) so I erased and reverted back.
The point is, if you have very little experience, there’re tons of resources to help you out. Search them out. Lean on folks here for help when needed. You’ll be ok.
This is one of those threads that I’m saving to my read-it-later app of choice because you never know. Awesome work, d3Xt3r.
Slap the bottoms of his bare feet with reeds until he complies. /s
If you want to persuade your friend down the road to give it another shot, try asking what things he’d like to do and see if you can configure everything in advance. It’s impossible to predict all future desires, but knocking out some of the bigger ones could help. Honestly, I’d be surprised if he tries again any time soon. Can’t blame him. We all have different levels of tolerance for drudgery vs wanting things to just work.
The Asahi team never fails to impress. You can support the project at their Patreon. You don’t need to care about Apple hardware to see the value in the work they’re doing getting ported over to ARM PCs. Who knows? You might be donating to the health of your preferred distro on a device you will own down the road.
I’ve got some old machines lying around (Intel mini and Intel air). I tried to go Linux today on the air. Tried Rocky, then Fedora, then Mint Cinnamon, then Mint Xfce. Couldn’t get the trackpad and kbd working. Plugging in external devices worked, but that meant juggling a kbd and mouse with the flash drive installer (only two USB-C). Then I had to juggle them with a USB-C power cable when the battery faded.
I know there are steps to make it all work with Apple’s T2 chip, but it just wasn’t worth it to me. I have two docks that I could use, but they’re driving two displays and a bunch of peripherals on my main machine, a MacBook Pro. I don’t expect I’ll run Linux on a Mac laptop until I retire my M1 air and install Asahi. It was so seamless when I tested it out that the rest just feels like burning valuable time.
I’ll prolly still convert the old mini, since all that noise won’t apply. Just WiFi drivers and such, which is much easier with four usb ports and ethernet.
If I really wanted a dedicated full-time Linux laptop, I’d probably buy a Framework since I find their hardware interesting. But as it stands, this was more of a fun project that turned out not so fun. I’ll stick with R-Pi’s and hypervisor VMs for my Linux needs for anything serious. Just ordered a new NUC today to replace one that was getting long in the tooth.
The project has a Patreon page. I’d encourage anyone who’s interested to consider supporting their work. I’ve been a subscriber since the Patreon started and I don’t even use Asahi. I installed it once to kick the tires and it was very impressive, but I like the Apple ecosystem. I just also like choice.
Why didn’t I think of that? This is a game changer!
Might be possible with Intel’s new Thunderbolt Share, but you’d need some hacks to make it work with present-day hardware and it hasn’t been released yet.
Not the person above, but I know that written explanations of command line tools are always preferred by myself.
Someone did this on Mac and I was impressed with it.
My driver is MacOS but I use Linux for things like servers and hobby projects, so I check these threads just to keep up on what’s happening in the space. I think people often recommend Mint for people who like MacOS, but I’m sure someone will correct me if I got that wrong.
Welcome to the club. It’s pretty great.
As someone else mentioned, learn the Bash shell (Bourne Again Shell; I just said the equivalent of Automated Teller Machine Machine).
Enjoy! Welcome! And I don’t even run it as my primary, just on servers and stuff (Apple guy).
I’m only a Linux command-line guy (Mac for GUI), but you’re making the right decision. You can have a computer that doesn’t suck and this is one of the ways. Good luck!
I worked at a company that was all-in on GSuite (now Google Workspace) for five years. They’ve got this covered.
I do not endorse Google apps. They suck. Web apps suck. Electron apps suck. Native apps are where it’s at.
I was a major adult fan in my twenties who worked with people who could finish a Simpsons joke when anyone started a line from the show. I remember coming in and sadly announcing that I thought I didn’t like the show anymore. That was in the oughts. It had been in decline for a while at the time.
I thought we were well past this topic. I guess everything old is new again. In fact, I’ll dust off a classic:
“Bugs fly through open Windows.”