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Linux Can Work On The 2013 MacBook Air

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  • Linux Can Work On The 2013 MacBook Air

    Phoronix: Linux Can Work On The 2013 MacBook Air

    As soon as Apple launched their Haswell-based MacBook Air I purchased the "ultrabook" for its long battery life, great build quality, and impressive design. However, running Linux on the 2013 MacBook Air has been a pain. It wasn't running cleanly but it looks like the major kernel booting problem comes down to a UEFI interaction issue...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    the rotted apple

    Please, don't complain if you buy anything from the rotted apple and it doesn't work the way you want. They don't want you to install anything on THEIR computer. It's that simple. You may even be doing something unlawful

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    • #3
      Originally posted by wargames View Post
      Please, don't complain if you buy anything from the rotted apple and it doesn't work the way you want. They don't want you to install anything on THEIR computer. It's that simple. You may even be doing something unlawful
      I agree. Apple has been suing every Android heavy user to prevent the Linux based mobile system from growing. The claims were silly, and based on stupid UI "intellectual property" , umm, patents. Of course, Android ate them alive regardless.

      But I would never buy a product from Apple. I hate giving cash to a company that uses software patent wars systematically (not that others had to enter the war pulled by Apple). There are worthy competitors for every product they produce, and typically they offer a better value.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by mendieta View Post
        But I would never buy a product from Apple. I hate giving cash to a company that uses software patent wars systematically (not that others had to enter the war pulled by Apple). There are worthy competitors for every product they produce, and typically they offer a better value.
        I agree with you: I don't like supporting Apple patents war.

        The problem is there aren't worthy alternatives as of now. The only ultra book with the same battery life is the VAIO pro 13 with an external battery sheet and it's around 1500$

        I'm really curious about how much the battery will last on the macbook air using a GNU/Linux distro.
        I'm not leaving Arch Linux + KDE SC for OSX and if the battery life isn't good the air can stay on the shelves, IMHO.

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        • #5
          only a...

          only a stupide guy buys this shit for running linux distro

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Andrecorreia View Post
            only a stupide guy buys this shit for running linux distro
            Thank you, Andre!
            What's wrong with looking for the cheapest ultrabook with 12h of battery life(*) and wanting to preserve my workflow?

            As a developer I use Dolphin and Kate everyday. They are awesome.
            Recently I had to use OSX for a while and Finder + Sublime were pretty lame replacements.
            And I'm not willing to give away Arch Linux bleeding edge packages and the AUR.

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            • #7
              I hope all the compatibility issues are sorted out soon and the battery life is not significantly reduced under Linux.

              With the previous Macbook Airs, has the battery life taken a hit when running Linux?

              For my Linux dev laptop, I am trying to decide between:
              • Haswell 2013 Macbook Air (Excellent battery life under OS X, good chassis, low-res screen, many Linux compatibility issues)
              • Dell XPS 13 (non-Haswell but 1080 screen, good Linux support, cheaper than alternatives at $900 for a new one off eBay)
              • Chromebook Pixel (Excellent screen but $$$, 4GB RAM, 64GB SSD, non-upgradeable) (probably unlikely)


              Any thoughts and recommendations?

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              • #8
                I have a Macbook Air 2013 13" running Arch Linux and it runs pretty well.
                Battery life is about 9 to 10 hours (down from 12h on OSX) but I think that is largely because I can only toggle the screen brightness between maximum and off. Also sound (speakers only) do not work.

                I got a Macbook, because at that time it was the only good thin haswell-powered Laptop I could find.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by justin2net View Post
                  I hope all the compatibility issues are sorted out soon and the battery life is not significantly reduced under Linux.

                  With the previous Macbook Airs, has the battery life taken a hit when running Linux?

                  For my Linux dev laptop, I am trying to decide between:
                  • Haswell 2013 Macbook Air (Excellent battery life under OS X, good chassis, low-res screen, many Linux compatibility issues)
                  • Dell XPS 13 (non-Haswell but 1080 screen, good Linux support, cheaper than alternatives at $900 for a new one off eBay)
                  • Chromebook Pixel (Excellent screen but $$$, 4GB RAM, 64GB SSD, non-upgradeable) (probably unlikely)


                  Any thoughts and recommendations?
                  How are the newer Thinkpads running under Linux, these days?
                  (say, one of the 4xx series -- I lucked into a pristine used T410 (with the good screen) for an terrific price, and I'm loving it. I might have gone looking for a newer one (for better battery life) but there was the whole hybrid-graphics mess, and I decided to wait).

                  Otherwise, there might be something worth your trouble at a Linux-focused vendor such as ZaReason or System76.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by wargames View Post
                    Please, don't complain if you buy anything from the rotted apple and it doesn't work the way you want. They don't want you to install anything on THEIR computer. It's that simple. You may even be doing something unlawful
                    As bad a company as Apple is they do have the best built hardware in their given market segments. They really know how to make that slave labor work for them far better then every other company out there.

                    Don't kid yourself, all of your electronics, even the OpenPandora are made using slave labor, that is unless OP stopped buying the plastic cases and boards from china, thats not to say that most of the components aren't also still made by slave labor, those chips and resistors all came from somewhere, and given the electronics industries race to the bottom that is usually a factory many people would rather die then be forced to work at.

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