Asahi Linux

Asahi Linux is a project that aims to port Linux to newer Apple silicon-powered Macs, allowing them to run a different operating system than macOS. The project was started and is led by. Work began in early 2021, a few months after Apple formally announced the transition to Apple silicon, with an initial alpha release following in 2022. The project has been made challenging by the lack of documentation of Apple's proprietary firmware.

History
There has been interest in getting Linux to run on Apple silicon since the transition was announced by Apple in late 2020. Shortly after this, Linux creator expressed interest in using an Apple M1 Mac if it ran Linux, but thought the work to make this happen was too much effort to bother with.

Martin announced the project in December 2020, and formally started it a month later after securing funding of around $4,000 per month. , who developed the open source graphics driver stack, joined the project to help support the Apple silicon graphics processing unit (GPU).

The developers quickly realised that just attempting to boot the compiled for Apple silicon's processor architecture  would be challenging, as it involved working out the functionality of proprietary Apple code used in the boot process. The work was time consuming and took most of the year, including submitting s to the main Linux kernel developers to keep development in sync and avoid regressions. However, it subsequently led to a thorough and comprehensive explanation of the previously undocumented boot process, which Martin and others published on.

The project released an experimental alpha version of the Asahi Linux installer on March 18, 2022. The installer offers the choice of an -based desktop or minimal environment, or a basic UEFI environment for installing or alternate Linux distributions with support for Apple silicon via a bootable USB drive. Despite being able to launch a UEFI shell, booting Microsoft Windows is not supported, and there are no plans to do so as it would involve modifying the proprietary Windows kernel.

Full support for all Apple silicon-supported Macs is not expected for another year or two following the first alpha release. In July of 2022, the Asahi Linux team released an update with support for the Apple M1 Ultra-based Mac Studio, and early initial support for the Apple M2-based MacBook Pro.

Support
Asahi Linux is currently considered alpha software. Although it can display a graphical user interface, it does not currently support any graphics acceleration, as this involves creating device drivers for Apple silicon's proprietary GPU from scratch. However, the performance of Apple silicon is sufficient to run a basic desktop at an acceptable speed. HDMI video output is only supported on the Apple silicon Mac mini, and there is no support for Thunderbolt video output on Apple silicon MacBooks.

The Asahi Linux kernel has been compiled with support for 16K. This means some existing releases of popular software, such as the web browser Chromium and the compiler did not work.

Reception
The project has been well received. A review in  said that it ran surprisingly well for a software still in alpha. Similarly, a review in  was impressed by the amount of hardware that was already supported early in the project lifecycle.