It's sad that the best Linux laptop right now arguably is a M4 Mac virtualizing Linux.

Framework?

herewulf 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I wanted to post this myself because I swear by my Framework 13 and it's my workhorse. However, it doesn't hold a candle to my wife's M3 Pro on a number of metrics mentioned here such as: Battery life, screen quality, and overall performance.

The Framework (Intel 12th Gen) also has the added benefit of heating the house, particularly with graphics "heavy" workloads (lots of windows open in GNOME Mutter, VMs, etc).

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geerlingguy 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Framework is nice but it's far from Apple's laptop hardware quality. The biggest draw of the Framework is its modularity.

	▲	dsego 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Based on my framework 13 and macbook m1, I think the only downgrade are the speakers and the trackpad. The keyboard is actually an upgrade, the 2.8k screen has a better size ratio but the contrast is not as good, I'd say it's decent. The trackpad performs well but it's the old hinged design and not haptic. Being able to service my own laptop, replace parts and max out the storage for less money than a mid-spec macbook is just unbelievable.

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treesknees 17 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Why not run it natively with Asahi Linux?

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Everdred2dx 17 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Well limiting to specifically OP's example (M4 Mac), Asahi doesn't support it yet. :(

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crossroadsguy 14 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Is Asahi installed side by side on a mac? You pick it at boot? And how “install and just use” it is?

	▲	neobrain 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> Is Asahi installed side by side on a mac? Yes, the installer automatically (and reliably) resizes partitions for you. A minimum of about 70 GB for macOS is needed (anything lower is still possible but unsupported). > You pick it at boot? There's a default choice that will boot. > And how “install and just use” it is? Probably one of the smoothest Linux installs I've had in 10 years or so, since you just run the installer from macOS instead of flashing ISO files to an USB drive.

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Wowfunhappy 12 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Asahi Linux doesn't support the M3 or M4. That said, I'd be curious why OP doesn't consider Asahi on M2 to be a good option. AFAIK the only thing missing at this point is Thunderbolt and USB-C display output (HDMI out works fine).

	▲	zenmac 44 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		There are a few draw backs. dnf for arm linux doesn't support Tor Browser yet!! Power saving was quite bad when I tried a few month back. When on sleep mode, it drains more battery than on MacOS sleep mode. There are a few other compile/transpile bugs here and there.... but I'm rooting for the it!!! Hopefully they can get sorted out soon.

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truncate 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

IIRC, there bunch of random things that still don't work -- no USB-C output, webcam, audio and if I've to guess suspend/resume is probably not rock solid either. The only benefit is that you get to use Linux, but then you may lose on actually getting work done without worrying about these issues. The new UI is inferior, but can still get things done.

	▲	neobrain 5 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		This information is very dated. Webcam/audio work fine nowadays, and suspend/resume have never had issues that I recall. IME the feature support page is very accurate (no hidden gotchas like "technically it works but it breaks after sleep"). USB-C output is indeed not working but actively making progress (so actively that some of the related patches have been sent to the kernel mailing list and merged this very week).
	▲	Wowfunhappy 6 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Webcam and audio both work now. I can't speak to how solid suspend/resume is because I haven't actually used it--I just follow the project--but I wouldn't necessarily assume it's flaky.

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ohdeargodno 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Asahi is only supporting M1, and partly M2 I believe. M3 was enough of a change that there are no drivers for it.

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risho 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

this is a psychotic question but have you actually tried doing that? like using a macbook as a vessel for running linux under parallels as a primary use?

	▲	prmoustache 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I guess if you autostart the linux VM upon booting this should work. I am doing actually the same with BeOS but using a Linux as the hardware compatibility layer. Linux distro is configured to autologin to sway which starts a VM and run it fullscreen. The guest VM is configured to use all the laptop ram leaving only 1GB for the host. In the second virtual desktop the pulseaudio volume control, wifi and bluetooth management tools are automatically open so I can easily plug a BT headphone, switch network. The linux distro automatically shutdown if I shutdown the VM. I am using swaylock to lock the screen when I am away.
	▲	bombcar 44 minutes ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		I haven't done Linux (I have servers and such and "got used" to macOS enough for my needs) but I did in ages past do something very similar with Windows on Parallels on Intel Macs.
	▲	qwertypig250 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I went down this rabbit hole but with UTM, didn't get far though. Anything GPU-accelerated will struggle, or straight up not work. That includes GPU-accelerated terminals and code editors. You will also have conflicts with touchpad gestures, hot corners, and keybindings. It's not a good way to go imo.