I’ve seen people talking about it and experienced it myself with a server, but why does Linux run so well on ARM (especially compared to Windows)?

  • Bob Smith@sopuli.xyz
    14·
    1 year ago

    I’ve run Linux on a Rockchip Chromebook, several Pi boards, and an M1 Macbook Pro, all with good results. I think that it helps that Linux comes from a long lineage of highly portable operating systems. One of the early victories of Unix was its ease of portability to new types of processor, due (at least in part) to being programmed in C. The BSDs and Linux have always had developers who took joy in getting the operating system up and running on more than one type of architecture. Debian, for instance, has run on one sort of ARM chip or another since around 2000. Windows has a core business that thrives on X86-based chip designs and they have had very little pressure to branch out over the years. Computer companies build around their operating system, rather than the other way around.

    • DM294@lemm.ee
      1·
      1 year ago

      Even I am interested in running linux in M1 macbook pro. Which distro have you used for that?

      • colmear
        4·
        1 year ago

        I don’t know what distros are available, but the big project everyone is talking about when talking about Linux on apple silicon is Asahi Linux

        • DM294@lemm.ee
          1·
          1 year ago

          I have tried that but it has quite some missing thingsmaking it hard to use it as a daily driver. I may be wrong tho

      • Bob Smith@sopuli.xyz
        2·
        1 year ago

        Ooops! I meant to type ‘Macbook Air’. I’ll leave the goof up to give your comment context, but I don’t have a MBP these days. I used the initial Asahi release and I’ve been upgrading it in place for a year or so.