Intel Corporation is indeed the largest corporate contributor of commits to Linux Kernel (outside individual contributors).

I don't think it's possible to create a Linux machine with no volunteer-built software on it.

Sure.

When you make a big chunk of your revenue selling Enterprise Servers, you can no longer rely on drivers written by volunteer labor, as they did in the past.

Except the Asahi Linux team are pretty insistent that Apple isn't making it particularly hard. Yes the hardware is novel, but hardly any hardware vendors share low level details on the Intel side either, all that has to be reverse engineered anyway.

>.. so that I can never switch to anything ever due to vendor lock-in,

What exactly prevents you? I use macOS, but have used Windows and still also use Linux, and can jump at a moment's notice if I wish. While keeping iPhone, or ditching that too for Android.

I'd lose the App Store bought apps, but I don't use that many of those, and the non-cross-platform apps would be an issue if I jumped away from any other OS too. The most expensive apps I use (Lightroom, Resolve, Photoshop), are available for Windows too, and some even for Linux.

Music and Movies are streaming, and I use Music, Spotify, Apple TV, Netflix and Prime (and increasingly less anyway). But if jumped, I'd hardly miss anything except Apple-exclusive TV shows and my playlists (which I'm sure are portable in some way, either some existing tool, or if I need some LLM to hack sqlite3 dbs).

Mindblowing to me that people continue to try and pin "planned obsolescence" on Apple, the manufacturer that makes infamously long lived products. You anti-Apple zealots get your talking points from 1996 Usenet posts.

Switching isn’t nearly as bad as some make it out to be. Much of iCloud is built with well-supported standards like IMAP, CalDAV, and CardDAV. Getting out of Google’s or Microsoft’s ecosystem, with how much both of those love their proprietary protocols and data formats, I would say is overall more messy.

As far as muscle memory and habits go, that almost makes it sound like it’s objectively wrong to build a desktop OS that doesn’t follow Windows-esque conventions, which I staunchly disagree with. Desktops are insanely personal and I cannot support the idea that things like keybindings and window chrome should only ever come in one shape.

I've got one - I bought a macbook from apple so I don't have to replace it for a decade. My 2014 one still works fine, aside from a distorted right speaker. And you know what? I'd do it again!