Asahi Linux brings the open source operating system to Apple Silicon Macs
The Asahi Linux project for Apple Silicon Macs has just become conformant to OpenGL 4.6 and OpenGL ES 3.2, surpassing Apple’s current support.
There’s a lot of technical background to these systems and implementations, but on a basic level, Linux users on Apple Silicon Macs will get better performance from some apps. Workloads that rely on things like Blender, Ryujinx, and Citra now have a compatible and conformant GPU driver for Apple Silicon Macs.
Apple requires developers to make apps with its Metal APIs, which are more modern and reduce overhead for performing tasks. However, that means supporting a proprietary system that is inherently useless if you want to take your app outside of the Apple ecosystem.
The Asahi Linux project already has a new target in sight — Vulkan. Like Metal, it’s a driver meant to reduce operation overhead, but it’s open source.
