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

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Running Asahi Linux with Sway on Apple’s M2 MacBook Air highlights both the appeal and fragility of using reverse‑engineered Linux on Apple Silicon: users praise the performance, responsiveness and hardware quality, but report weak battery life, sleep issues, trackpad quirks and incomplete support for newer M‑series chips. Many see Asahi’s work as an impressive technical achievement constrained by Apple’s closed ecosystem and a small, underfunded developer pool, with recent departures raising questions about long‑term support and expansion to M3/M4/M5 hardware. The conversation broadens into a comparison with x86 and ARM laptops, where some argue that well‑supported ThinkPads, Chromebooks, and certified Linux hardware offer more sustainable freedom and reliability than relying on Apple machines that may be locked down further in the future.

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.