Asahi Linux with Sway on the MacBook Air M2 (2024)

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Wayland, notches, and “modularity”

  • Some praise Wayland’s extensible protocols (e.g., upcoming xdg-cutouts for notches) as a strength.
  • Others argue Wayland is not modular in practice: a huge core spec, monolithic compositors, and many one-off extensions that fragment support.
  • Persistent basic bugs like unreliable clipboard behavior are cited as evidence that the ecosystem still isn’t “stable” after many years.
  • X11 is defended as “mostly done” and reliable for decades, with an active fork still adding fixes, while others emphasize that security/architectural issues remain.

Asahi Linux status and Apple’s rapid hardware cadence

  • Many worry about buying newer M3/M4/M5 Macs when Asahi currently only supports up through M2 and reverse-engineering each generation is huge unpaid work.
  • Several commenters claim the project is “effectively dead” because key GPU/SoC reverse engineers and the original project lead left; others counter that development continues but is focused on upstreaming ~1000 downstream kernel patches before tackling new chips.
  • New maintainers explicitly prioritize sustainability and upstreaming (SMC subdevices, USB3, etc.) over chasing new hardware.
  • Some see reverse engineering Apple as a heroic but ultimately capped and exhausting effort; others consider it essential for user freedom on popular hardware.

Battery life and power management on Linux (and Asahi)

  • Asahi’s battery life is widely reported as worse than macOS, especially in sleep/idle; some users fully power off between uses.
  • Technical explanations: missing power states on Apple CPUs, many undocumented controllers lacking deep power-saving support, and the need to tune governors, idle states, and peripheral sleep behavior end-to-end.
  • More generally, some claim “Linux battery is awful on laptops,” while others report near-Windows or excellent life on ThinkPads/Chromebooks with tools like TLP/powertop and good hardware choices.
  • Sleep behavior (modern standby vs S3/S0ix), spurious wakeups, and per-machine kernel quirks are recurring pain points.

Hardware quality, pricing, and storage/RAM

  • MacBooks are praised for efficiency, fanless operation, trackpad, screen, speakers, and overall feel; critics dislike soldered RAM/SSD and fragile aluminum shells.
  • Multiple posts lament 256GB SSD and 8GB RAM as “criminal” in 2025 for expensive machines; others argue 256GB is enough for many cloud-centric users.
  • Commenters compare alternatives: ThinkPads (T/X/P/E lines), LG Gram, Surface, HP EliteBooks, StarLabs, Chromebooks, and Framework, noting trade-offs in build quality, displays, battery, and Linux support.

Why Linux on Apple at all? Alternatives and risks

  • Some view Asahi as fundamentally risky: Apple can change hardware/firmware at any time, leaving users with partially working or bricked Linux installs.
  • Others argue the point is extending life of existing Macs and enabling freedom on otherwise locked-down premium hardware.
  • Several recommend instead:
    • Buying laptops with first-class Linux support, or
    • Running Linux in a VM on Apple Silicon (e.g., via UTM/Apple’s virtualization) for a smoother experience.
  • LLMs under Asahi are noted as disadvantaged because Apple’s MPS stack isn’t available; you’re limited to slower Vulkan-based paths.