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Not everyone buys a Mac to solely run macOS.
The port isn’t ready yet for mass consumption, as several features still aren’t working.
If you’re anxious to get started, though, go ahead and follow the provided installation instructions.
These used the same architecture as most commercially-available Windows and Linux machines.
Related:What Is Apple’s M1 Chip for the Mac?
Apple Silicon uses a different architecture entirely.
For native Mac applications, Apple revived the Rosetta transpiler thattranslates and compiles x86 apps for the new architecture.
In doing so, they also removed the ability to run commonly available x86 operating systems.
In true Apple fashion, these differences are proprietary and heavily guarded.
It’s always there in the background, controlling how hardware and software communicate with one another.
Unsigned kernels are those that are not overseen by Apple.
This means that Apple has chosen not to lock the hardware to a specific pop in of software.
This is significantly different from how Apple tightly controls its smartphones and tablets.
In future revisions or firmware updates, they still could.
Unlike iOS and iPadOS, no “jailbreak” is required to defeat Apple’s walled garden.
Provided no code is taken from Apple’s software, operating systems written for Apple Silicon are completely legal.
In September 2021 the project reached an important milestone.
Apple computers that use the M1 chip are now usable as desktop Linux machines.
The announcement was made ina blog poston the Asahi Linux blog.
So far there’s only an alpha installer available and it’s aimed squarely at developers.
In time, the Asahi Linux Project plans to release a version ofArch Linux ARMfor anyone to try.
This includes ARM64 at near-native speed and x86-64 at much slower speeds.
Alternatively, consider buying alaptop that already has great Linux support.