Apple’s M1 processor has been turning heads since its launch in late 2020, and now there’s a Linux distribution designed specifically for the chip that’s already wowing people with its performance.
Btw I use Arch on an M1 MacBook
The effort is being led by veteran Linux porter Hector Martin and his crowdfunded Asahi Linux project. The project started in January 2021 and has just released its first Alpha, which can run on any M1, M1 Pro, or M1 Max machine running macOS 12.3 or later. Notably, the project reached this stage without any official help from Apple, instead discovering an inherent hardware flaw in the M1 chip.
"My initial impression of Asahi Linux with its Arch Linux Arm desktop version was that it runs better than expected, at least on a Mac mini," Michael Larabel, founder and lead author of computer hardware website Phoronix, told Lifewire via email. "There [are] still areas where it falls short in performance, but [it's] already much faster than, say, a Raspberry Pi 4 or other low-end Arm single-board computers running Linux."
Larabel noted that Asahi’s installation process is a bit different, as it must be launched from within macOS. In an email exchange with Lifewire, Bruno Santos, systems and network administrator at ULS Castelo Branco, said that Asahi installed on his M1 MacBook Air without any problems.
