Asahi Linux is interesting, to say the least. To say the most, it seemed to stutter a lot when I was first using it but that stopped. Ended up running KDE Plasma, which is still on version 5.27 as Fedora is still on 39. A lot of software is not available, and a lot of flatpaks tend to have errors that their RPM counterparts do not have. I have kind of given up on flatpaks for this install, to be honest.
The actual install itself was pretty easy, but removing it was another situation involving one script that I though was the complete script, but the answer marked solution on the fedora forums was wrong! I thought I had already bricked the laptop, but a lot of troubleshooting and eventually a complete revival (yes, that’s what it was called) fixed the issue, and I was able to get the installation the way I wanted it.
Still working on setting up, but it seems to be working. I would obviously reccomend it to anybody who already has a macbook, it’s stable and has all of the software I needed (not wanted, sorry Civ 6), including Mullvad VPN. However, if you are looking to get a new laptop, unless it’s the only option () I would recommend getting something x86_64 because the ARM processor is simply not up to par with x86_64 in terms of software availability and comparability (flatpaks). The battery life is much better though, I will give it that. I don’t know how macbooks tend to fair against other laptops with similar specs, but the screen and lid-durability are much better than on my old laptop (it had stress marks from me opening and closing it so much).
Sent from Fedora Asahi Linux
Flatpaks are a difficult issue since some flatpaks are built non-transparently using pre-compiled blobs meant for amd64, this is a problem on Flathub with some apps but I think fedora-flatpaks shouldn’t have this issue (if it does then that sucks). Deep in my heart I also want to get an Apple Silicon machine since they are fan-less but the soldered SSD is a no-go, unless there’s a new model with a swappable ssd (very unlikely), I can’t recommend apple silicon hardware to anyone in good faith.
Waiting for the RISC-V laptop that inevitably drops in China in 5-6 years that compares to m1 and amd64 laptops (more than 8gb RAM and swappable large SSDs). I can’t wait to roll up to work with my Chinese laptop running entirely free software.
I think some Fedora Flatpaks were fine, but I know at least Libreoffice was not launching.
Same, RISC-V is very exciting. Hopefully people will have added support to their software by the time a major release happens.
I did not know that. Explains the quiet!
Kind of expected that but yikes, if anything happens to that SSD this laptop dies![emoji capitaldcolon capitaldcolon](https://www.hexbear.net/pictrs/image/d0711497-4f49-4de3-8a42-a7005556549a.png)
Aren’t there already MIPS based laptops available in China with Loognson processors? I’ve actually been meaning to see if I can get one where I live off aliexpress or something.
Edit: Here ya go: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804582346265.html
1500 dollary-doos oh no ma’am i use linux cause im POOR /hj
All this stuff looks really cool but it’s still in its infancy right now and also Fedora doesn’t have good support for RISC-V processors (they’re still working on ARM and hopefully apple silicon speeds that up).
Yeah I was disappointed seeing that too. I was hoping there’d be a cheap-ish netbook like variant just to play around with building and testing software for it. Though there are affordable-ish motherboards for desktops by the looks of it. Though keep in mind those are MIPS, not RISC-V. Both are RISC ISAs but MIPS has been around in computers much longer, but also isn’t very popular compared to ARM so software compatibility bmihht be an issue. I think the largest use of MIPS architecture was the PS2 processor.