Mikey Campbell
Developer Hector Martin, also known as "marcan," on Monday launched a Patreon to fund solo work on a Linux port for Apple silicon Macs.
According to Martin, Apple's M1-powered Macs are capable of running Linux, but creating a working port is a major undertaking; a near Herculean effort for one developer. He says he is up to the task, though the project would require dedication equivalent to a full-time job, thus the Patreon.
Martin has experience with open source code, from projects involving Nintendo's Wii console to more recent Linux ports for Sony's PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. The Patreon's goal, according to the developer, is to massage Linux on M1 Macs "to the point where it is not merely a tech demo, but is actually an OS you would want to use on a daily driver device."
Whether the operating system can actually run, and do so with stability, on Apple silicon is up for debate. In a series of posts to Real World Technologies forum earlier this month, creator Linus Torvalds said he would "absolutely love" to own an M1-powered Mac if it ran Linux, but is uncertain such a premise is feasible.
"The main problem with the M1 for me is the GPU and other devices around it, because that's likely what would hold me off using it because it wouldn't have any Linux support unless Apple opens up," Torvalds told ZDNet last week.
Martin agrees that the custom GPU will be a major hurdle, along with effective power management.
"Running Linux on things is easy, but making it work well is hard," Martin says in the Patreon description. "Drivers need to be written for all devices. The driver for the completely custom Apple GPU is the most complicated component, which is necessary to have a good desktop experience. Power management needs to work well too, for your battery life to be reasonable."
Patreon tiers range from $3 to $48 per month, with perks including the ability to vote on the development of upcoming features, patron-only livestreams and more. Martin estimates he needs about $4,000 a month to take on the project, and that goal is 91% complete at the time of this writing.
If the developer takes on the venture, he plans to collaborate with other developers and "anyone else who wants to contribute." A timeline for completion was not discussed.
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18 Comments
Considering the huge performance advantages of the M1, and future Apple Silicon, the Linux community will certainly be motivated to get Linux working on Apple Silicon. If successful, it will leave the WinTel community in the dust. I can easily see countless Mac Minis being purchased and used as high-performance, power-efficient servers and clusters.
Would love it if they just focused on the headless server aspects first since that would be immediately useful. Linux UI is such an incredibly small niche market compared to servers where linux marketshare is dominant and ARM chips are already amazon instances you can use
But when will someone port Minix?
I thought it odd that Torvalds would be so dismissive of the idea, even with the proprietary GPU situation, I shouldn't have thought it would be that difficult. Insane for one developer, sure, but not ridiculous. And the idea that it's not worth the effort seems to be very anti-engineering to me. People have done more difficult things just for the hell of it before, and we could have predicted someone would port Linux to ASi.
I mean I get that he's trying to take a sideways swipe at Apple over what he sees as a lack of openness, but I think he's grossly underestimated what a bored software engineer will do for kicks.
Matter of the time version of Linux will be running on M1 Macbooks and MAC Pro. Wouldn't be surprised Microsoft will help port Windows on M1 MACs.
Besides price there is no longer a reason to own a Windows virus machine.
If Apple allows iPhone 12 and above exclusive games your statement would be more true.
Apple A14 chip has massive potential but Apple caps developers at iPhone 7 or so(I believe). Add an Apple TV M1 and Apple could take over the gaming industry within 2 years.
EDIT:
I misread your last sentence as "for non-mobile gaming".
Will leave my comment up as it makes good points regarding M1 and gaming anyway.