New Macs: Compatible with Linux?

[Patrick1]

I’ve always been a Mac user but as a freelance developer I often like to boot into Ubuntu for various tools.

My current Mac does this with no problem, but I am seeing conflicting info on how it works on the new Macs. Do you have to run Linux in Docker or is it possible to run natively on the Apple ARM CPU’s?

 

[root]

Hey @Patrick1 - welcome to Computer Forums 👋

As far as I can tell there is currently no way to boot into Linux on Apple Sillicon however progress is being made - the Linux kernel now supports it as a platform and there is a project actively working to bring Linux to Apple Sillicon - https://asahilinux.org/

For now I’d say you will need to use Docker but in the future booting natively should be a relatively simple endeavour.

If you mostly use the command line, you might even consider running Linux on another machine or a VPS and sshing in from your Mac if you decide to upgrade.

 

[Patrick1]

Great, so it looks like it will be possible in the future. Seems like a lot of people are working on this at least.

Thanks for the help and further reading, I should be able to take it from here! 🙂