Linus Torvalds wants Apple’s new Macs to run Linux



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Earlier this month, Apple unveiled its own ARM-based M1 processor, along with new MacBooks and a desktop Mac Mini powered by that chip. Critics around the world praised Apple’s first attempt, giving it high marks for performance and battery life.

All of this positive coverage has tempted many people to take the plunge and purchase one of the new machines – although some apps don’t work natively at the moment. Even Linus Torvalds, the main developer of the Linux kernel, wants one. However, he wants it to be running Linux:

I would absolutely love to have one, if it only worked on Linux. I have fond memories of the Macbook Air 11 ″ (I think 4.1) that I used about ten years ago (but I moved away from it because it took Apple too long to fix screen – and by the time they did, I switched to better laptops, and Apple had switched to making Linux less convenient).

Responding to a question on the Real World Tech forum, Torvalds said that while Apple runs its servers and cloud services on Linux, its computers do not run them natively. He said he wanted an ARM-based Linux laptop for some time, but the but he doesn’t want to have to play around with Apple’s new laptop to make it run on Linux:

I was waiting for an ARM laptop capable of running Linux for alongtime. The new Air would be almost perfect, except for the OS. And I don’t have the time to tinker, nor the inclination to fight businesses that don’t want to help.

Support for Linux on MacBook would have made it a more attractive bet for programmers. However, I don’t think the engineers at the Cupertino campus are planning to make this happen any time soon.. Sorry, Linus.

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Published November 23, 2020 – 06:04 UTC



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