One of the key differences between Apple’s Macs and the iPhone and iPad is that the Mac can still boot and run non-Apple operating systems. This is a feature that Apple specifically built for the Mac, one of many features meant to ease the transition from Intel’s chips to Apple’s own silicon.
The problem, at least at first, was that alternate operating systems like Windows and Linux didn’t work natively with Apple’s hardware, not least because of missing drivers for basic things like USB ports, GPUs, and power management. Enter the Asahi Linux project, a community-driven effort to make open-source software run on Apple’s hardware.
In just a few years, the team has taken Linux on Apple Silicon from “basically bootable” to “plays native Windows games and sounds great doing it.” And the team’s ultimate goal is to contribute enough code upstream that you no longer need a Linux distribution just for Apple Silicon Macs.
On December 4 at 3:30 pm Eastern (1:30 pm Pacific), Ars Technica Senior Technology Reporter Andrew Cunningham will host a livestreamed YouTube conversation with Asahi Linux Project Lead Hector Martin and Graphics Lead Alyssa Rosenzweig that will cover the project’s genesis and its progress, as well as what the future holds.