Asahi Linux on MacBook air questions (lemmy.world)

submitted 7 months ago by mortalic@lemmy.world to c/linux@sh.itjust.works

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I'm debating trying to get my hands on a used m1 or M2 air for the primary use case of leaving it on my couch so I can quickly look stuff up. I thought about going with a chrome book, but all the snapdragon powered ones either have sketchy support or are expensive.

I also want it to have a small form factor so I think I want a MacBook air. I don't have any interest in macos (which I use for work) so I was debating putting Linux on it.

Has anyone had experience with asahi Linux, or the fedora spin? Could you share what works/doesn't etc?

Is there a better option I'm not thinking about?

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[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 7 months ago

I installed it about a year ago. It worked fine in my (extremely) limited testing. I daily-drive MacOS and had recently got a MBP, so I figured why not give it a spin on my old Air as I've been supporting the project since its inception. I only used it for maybe five minutes. It seemed reasonably polished to me.

[-] mortalic@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

Thanks

[-] thetreesaysbark@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 months ago

Off topic but I have a question...

my couch so I can quickly look stuff up

Why doesn't a phone suffice?

[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 7 months ago

I have an iPad Air tucked into a leather couch pocket for just this reason. I pull it out and jump on Lemmy when we pause for my partner to go to the bathroom or make a snack. Sometimes, you just appreciate a bigger screen.

[-] thetreesaysbark@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago

Yeah fair, that's just a different reason to solely to look something up, which is what I thought OP meant.

[-] mortalic@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

Funny you ask, I was trying to book an appointment for a local company on my phone the other day and it wasn't rendering properly. It's crazy to me in this day and age but it seems that there are still companies that have non mobile friendly websites. It's happened a lot lately too, tried to order some food and the site used it's own process for delivery, and didn't render worth a crap on mobile. Basically a ton of little reasons why I want something like I describe.

[-] thetreesaysbark@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago

Gotcha.

Personally I opt for 'show in desktop mode' in my browser when that happens. Hasn't failed me yet but I imagine it will with some weird site I visit one day.

[-] breadsmasher@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Are you just using it for random web browsing, if you’re looking things up?

If so, and assuming since you want to get rid of macos you aren’t using the apple ecosystem? imo a macbook seems wildly overpriced for what sounds like light, occasional usage? I have been considering a macbook myself, so this isn’t just applehate or anything. It just sounds to me that something significantly cheaper would fit your usecase still?

[-] mortalic@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

I put a couple use cases above on another comment, but as I'm reading through these another one popped into my head. I have a steamdeck with controllers as my media center, the other day I was playing a game and wanted to look something up on the wiki for it. I got it done on my phone but it was a ton of pinch zoom, search page and it was just tedious. So add that to the use cases.

As for macos, I am not in the apple ecosystem at all, I use a macbook air for my day job and it's serviceable but I'm just a linux guy really. If I can get KDE on it, then even better. I've been using KDE since slackware in the late 90's.

The macbook air is handy though, when I have to go to the office (occasional) I don't have to charge it and it's small enough to carry everywhere.

Being honest here, I actually went down the chromebook route first but then I realized that to get a chromebook that uses a snapdragon cpu, and has a small formfactor, with linux support was actually a difficult combo, and if I did find one, there is a lenvo thinkpad for example, it was like $1000 or so.

this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2024

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