Apple Silicon hardware support merged into Linux 5.13 Saturday, April 10, 2021 10:45 am
Asahi Linux has merged initial support for Apple Silicon hardware into the Linux system-on-chip (SoC) tree, where it will hopefully make it into the Linux 5.13 kernel (due roughly in July).
Jim Salter for Ars Technica:
Asahi is the Japanese name for what we know as the McIntosh Apple — the specific fruit cultivar that gave the Mac its name. Asahi Linux is a fledgling distribution founded with the specific goal of creating a workable daily-driver Linux experience on Apple M1 silicon.
This is a daunting task. Apple does not offer any community documentation for Apple Silicon, so Martin and cohorts must reverse-engineer the hardware as well as write drivers for it. And this is especially difficult considering the M1 GPU—without first-class graphics support, Asahi cannot possibly offer a first-class Linux experience on M1 hardware such as the 2020 M1 Mac Mini, Macbook Air, and Macbook Pro.
We’re cautiously excited about the idea of first-class Linux support on the M1, but we absolutely do not recommend buying M1 hardware for that purpose unless and until the Asahi project gets much, much farther down the road than it’s managed so far.
MacDailyNews Take: It’ll be awhile – perhaps quite awhile – before Linux on Apple Silicon becomes viable.
26 years ago, Pixar’s IPO made Steve Jobs a billionaire Monday, November 29, 2021 3:13 pm
26 years ago, the initial public offering of Pixar made Steve Jobs, who owned upward of 80% of the company, a billionaire.
Luke Dormehl for Cult of Mac:
After the windfall, one of the first people Jobs calls is his friend, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, already a member of the billionaire’s club.
“Hello, Larry?” Jobs tells his friend on the phone. “I made it.”
Jobs invested in Pixar during his time outside Apple. He bought the majority interest in the animation studio from Star Wars creator George Lucas for just $5 million (and an extra $5 million in guaranteed funding) in early 1986.
Jobs’ truly deserved the Pixar IPO home run. He possessed an unswerving faith in the possibilities offered by computer-animated movies. And he funded this dream until Moore’s law caught up with it. He also helped broker the deal that brought Toy Story to silver screens.
After the IPO, Jobs negotiated a new five-picture deal between Pixar and Disney. It gave Pixar an equal share of the profits, along with merchandise and on-screen credits. (By way of contrast, the Toy Story deal tilted heavily in Disney’s favor.)
MacDailyNews Take: Steve Jobs was very obviously a rare and brilliant visionary.
In January 2006, Disney acquired Pixar for $7.4 billion and Steve Jobs joined joined Disney’s Board of Directors.
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