14 DAY TRIAL // The adoption of Linux has recorded a massive increase earlier this year, and for many, this is something that just makes sense for a wide variety of reasons.
One of the main ones is the demise of Windows 7, the 2009 operating system that no longer receives updates and security patches this January this year.
And while the transition to this operating system continues, Linus Torvalds, who is also referred to as the father of Linux, says he’s impressed with Apple Silicon. And of course, Torvalds, who is a former Mac user, would actually want an M1-powered Apple device, with one condition: it needs to run Linux.
Commenting in the Real World Tech forum, Torvalds explains that ARM chips are actually worth a chance, and he’s been looking for such a device running Linux for a long time.
Now that Apple is investing in ARM, a MacBook powered by Linux could become the ultimate working machine, though seeing this happening is something that’s very unlikely.
“I’d absolutely love to have one, if it just ran Linux.. I have fairly fond memories of the 11″ Macbook Air (I think 4,1) that I used about a decade ago (but moved away from because it took Apple too long to fix the screen – and by the time they did, I’d moved on to better laptops, and Apple had moved on to make Linux less convenient),” he said.
“I’ve been waiting for an ARM laptop that can run Linux for alongtime. The new Air would be almost perfect, except for the OS. And I don’t have the time to tinker with it, or the inclination to fight companies that don’t want to help.
The chances to ever see Linux on Apple Silicon, at least officially, are absolutely zero. Apple is known as a company that’s obsessed with its software and hardware, though it goes without saying a MacBook powered by Linux would be quite a hit.
On the other hand, a Linux-powered MacBook with Apple Silicon would resolve one of the biggest problems in the open-source world. A high-end Linux laptop is rather hard to find, and given the MacBook is one of the best devices currently around, this combination would certainly be compelling for many customers.
But again, you’d better not hold your breath for it. Interestingly enough, however, Apple itself doesn’t rule out the possibility of seeing a different operating system than macOS landing on its M1-powered devices.
Craig Federighi, SVP of Software Engineering, recently said in an interview that Windows running on Apple Silicon is something that could actually happen, as long as Microsoft itself wants it. In other words, Microsoft is the one that needs to decide if it wants to bring Windows to M1-powered computers.
“That's really up to Microsoft,” he said. “We have the core technologies for them to do that, to run their ARM version of Windows, which in turn of course supports x86 user mode applications. But that's a decision Microsoft has to make, to bring to license that technology for users to run on these Macs. But the Macs are certainly very capable of it.”
For now, Apple Silicon has one big problem the Cupertino-based tech giant needs to deal with: the lack of app support. As some discovered the hard way, there are lots of apps that aren’t running properly or aren’t even compatible with M1-powered devices, and it all comes down to developers optimizing their software for ARM chips. Until this happens en-masse, Apple computers with M1 processors would continue to be impacted by this lack of apps, and this could eventually become a deal-breaker for some.