Was looking at getting a macbook air with an m1 chip in it and running Asahi Linux on it. My question is how viable is it for daily life? E.g. browsing, torrenting, uni notes ect. Would it be equivalent to a regular x86 laptop running Linux? Or would I be missing useful features?
Edit: Another question is how it holds up against newer AMD laptops, as it is 3-4 years old at this point.
You’d be making a few concessions, specifically Microphone, and HDMI out in:
https://github.com/AsahiLinux/docs/wiki/M1-Series-Feature-Support
That being said, those wouldn’t deter me personally, especially if I got a good deal on one.
No one should buy a laptop with every single fucking component soldered on. Fuck Apple and every company that does what they do. Get yourself a Framework laptop or one from an actual Linux vendor like System76, Tuxedo, Starlabs…etc. That way you’re able to upgrade your shit down the road when you need to. Apple shit is you get what you get.
While I generally agree, the OP is asking about an M1, so they’re probably considering a used laptop. No profits to Apple, and better for the environment.
Of course apple profita from used laptops. If noone buys used apple laptops some of those who are replacing cannot afford the new one and there is a crowding out effect. Moreover, the higher the demand for other vendors, the higher the support for them.
Don’t ever buy apple devices. It’s not a good company
I do not like Apple as a company and would never buy direct. This one is second-hand and much cheaper than a framework. I would definitely buy a framework if that was an option.
The m series really are a game changer for battery life and ease of use and weight. What the other person said about soldered on components is just completely ignoring the reality of the situation. There are plenty of arguments for and against soldered motherboards. Linus Tech Tips has a good video covering it.
The m1 isn’t as good as later chips, and the air really needs more oomph, but I literally run DaVinci Resolve, Lightroom Classic, and insta 360 studio on mine (mine is an M3) at the same time as I’ve got a thousand tabs in Firefox open and it can handle it just fine. Which is saying something as those are not lightweight programs.
I can’t compare it to an m1 air, but my dad has an m1 air and he’s never complained about it. He’s using it for just normal stuff though. Doc editing, web browsing, watching YouTube.
I have a 24GB M2 and the thing dances around anything I throw at it. I’m typing on it right now with Onshape in a few tabs, orcaSlicer in a few windows, work in a few chrome tabs, a few iterm sessions, and a million other little apps in the background with very little hickups.
Not M1 but I tried installing Mint in my touch bar 2021 MBP and zero components worked. No track pad, no keyboard, wifi, Bluetooth etc.
Apple doesn’t provide the drivers.
While that is likely true, Asahi is a bespoke Linux distribution for Apple hardware. It’s what it was made for. At this point most of the stuff in the M1 is working fine on Asahi, as far as I’ve read. They even got 3D graphics working recently.
Ah sorry I misinterpreted your comment. I see it’s specifically for Silicon Macs. Mine’s Intel :( I got too excited.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Laptop/Apple https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Mac/Troubleshooting https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Mac Here you go homie, for your first time use not arch but arch based distro with gui preinstalled
the whole apple-bad thing aside, you’re getting a non-expandable 8 GB laptop, of which a significant portion goes to graphics. that’s pretty low today, and it’s gonna be worse down the road. speaking of graphics, although Asahi has basic functionality, the driver isn’t 100% yet.
I hope you don’t plan on torrenting a buncha stuff, as the SSD is small and non-replaceable and after years of use has an insane TBW number.
the battery longevity is a solid argument but you are buying a 4 year old battery that will show signs of aging.
I am all for repurpose/reuse/recycle, but unless you get it for free, or close to it, this thing s a bad idea. get a similarly aged business-class laptop (thinkpad, yoga, latitude, elitebook, etc.) that you can cram full of RAM and storage and replace practically every component if it fails.
I would not even consider it if it was 8GB, but this one is 16GB with 512gb of storage. It is a decent deal for what it is, and I’ve been looking for a decently powerful arm machine for awhile.
that’s radically different. although the serviceability is still nonexistent, that’s a very useable machine. just be prepared to toss the thing if anything breaks.
for me, that would be a deal breaker but I understand the itch to try it out. just make sure it’s not icloud locked.
Well, when it comes to laptops these days lots of brands can practically only be serviced/repaired by bringing them back to the Apple Store/manufacturer’s repair shop. Especially when it comes to lightweight models.
I miss my old Sager/Clevo gaming laptop where I could replace practically everything, I even upgraded the gfx card.
