When Apple started its own custom revolution with the Apple M1 chips, it did so with some consequences: Installing Windows or Linux natively became seemingly impossible, and they were not willing to help those who tried it in Cupertino.

AsahiLinux. Shortly after the first Macs with the M1 chip appeared, there were two efforts to run Linux on these machines. The development of Corellium was the first option, but the most notable was Asahi Linux, which tried to provide full support through reverse engineering and constant work on device drivers. It was a long and slow road, but it was the best way to real support.

reverse engineering course on youtube. Development of Asahi Linux led by Hector Martin (@marcan42) progressed: both he and other members of his team showed their work in programming sessions live for hours on YouTube, where they showed how complex it is to put each piece of the puzzle in place.

first joys. The first good news came in October 2021: Asahi Linux already offered a “basic usable desktop” on the Mac M1s, despite the lack of an easy-to-follow installation process and a major hurdle in sight: GPU support, graphics chip integrated into the Apple SoC has been done.

This works (but not quite). Months later, more important developments in March: Now anyone can easily install Linux on a Mac M1 and enjoy a functional working environment. GPU driver development was making progress, but the major hurdle remained. Even so, it was possible to work with graphics applications without major problems without hardware acceleration, and this led even Linus Torvalds to buy a MacBook Air with the M2 chip backed by the project.

✨🎊🎉 IT WORKS!!!!!!🎉🎊✨
🦀🐧🍎🔻🧊🇼👩🔥🦊⚙️

GNOME is running!! Firefox works!! You can watch YouTube, play Neverball, run KDE apps and more!! Don’t crash!!!🎉🎉

On a native Linux GPU driver for the Apple M1!!🚀

Check out the mini-stream I showed you!!!
▶️https://t.co/g0R1JZI6Pe

— Asahi Lina / 朝日リナ //nullptr::live (@LinaAsahi) 29 September 2022

GPU finally. This week, the developer nicknamed ‘Asahi Lina’, whose sessions were also posted on YouTube, finally accomplished the seemingly impossible: developing an Open Source driver (on Rust!) with other developers like Alyssa Rosenzweig. the year the process was run (and documented). Some details still need to be polished, but it was already possible, for example, to work with GNOME, Firefox, run KDE applications or watch YouTube without problems. Of course it showed on YouTube.

No AAA games. The support is remarkable, but neither the controller is exactly perfect nor the power of the GPU to play AAA games, at least on the M1 chip – we’ll see what happens with the GPUs of the Max, Pro or Ultra versions. “Reverse engineering slows down the process,” Rosenzweig said. [de desarrollo y soporte] significantly” and for example these controllers still don’t work on M2s – but they will soon. But the success has been amazing and you may want to contribute to the project’s Patreon campaign.