mccSep 2, 2024

Every reply person comes in 1 of exactly 2 flavors

1. "Oh, having a problem with Windows? Bet you wish you were using Linux now, huh bootlicker?" [Me: "How would you solve the problem in Linux then?"] [Them: "Oh I've never used Linux I just read about it on Wikipedia"]

2. Hey uhhhh I'm so sorry to assume there are things in the world you don't know but… have you tried [actual fucking cheat codes, deep secrets not documented anywhere] I'm sorry…I'm so sorry I'm going to go delete my account now

Show threadblsSep 2, 2024
@mcc Here's a 3rd flavor 🤣 Both Windows and Linux suck. In fact, every OS sucks. They all just suck differently. If you're lucky, you can use each one without hitting the suckage, but on some OS it's a wee bit more difficult than others.
Show threadmccSep 2, 2024
@bls What I try to do is use a mix of all 4 OSes. In theory, this will mean I can use each OS for only those things for which it is strong. In practice, it means I have to debug, and know how to debug, all four OS'es individual idiosyncracities
Show threadbloodinthewaterSep 2, 2024
@mcc @bls You just described dual booting (or I guess quadruple booting in this case).
Show threadmcc

@bloodinthewater @bls not necessarily, computers have got kind of cheap recently. you can just get one computer per OS.

(Macintoshes of course are *not* cheap, but they don't dual boot anyway) (Or rather, if I was offered a way to dual boot linux on a modern macintosh, I would not trust it)

Sep 2, 2024 at 3:43amWeb
Show threadmccSep 2, 2024
@bloodinthewater @bls …this said, if I COULD dual boot android on a desktop pc, I would probably try it just to see what happens
Show threadtends Sep 2, 2024
@mcc @bloodinthewater @bls https://android-x86.org used to exist, and they were pretty good in the gingerbread-jelly bean days, but I think they've kinda fallen off recently
Android-x86 - Porting Android to x86

Android-x86 is an Android Open Source Project licensed under Apache Public License 2.0. Some components are licensed under GNU General Public License (GPL) 2.0 or later.

Show threadmccSep 2, 2024
@tendstofortytwo @bloodinthewater @bls yeah also was that ever meant to boot or just run fast in qemu…?
Show threadtends Sep 2, 2024
@mcc @bloodinthewater @bls I ran it on my intel atom netbook as an honest-to-goodness second operating system for a while. played games on it from the play store and everything
Show threadTed MielczarekSep 6, 2024
@mcc @bloodinthewater @bls There are people making firmware images to run Android on Raspberry Pi, which is pretty close: https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=358896
Show threadNickSep 2, 2024
@mcc @bloodinthewater @bls So you can't dual boot macs anymore? I haven't used one yet with the 'new' CPU architecture. That sucks.
Show threadEric JenningsSep 2, 2024

@nicksalt You can still dual boot macs on the new arm architecture. It is not as easy as it used to be though. And the only real option to dual boot is Asahi Linux. You can’t get the arm version of Windows to natively dual boot like you used to with boot camp on the intel macs. For arm Windows people just run in VMs.

Anyways, Apple doesn’t advertise it, but there are developer docs and WWDC sessions on how to boot other OSes. In theory, there could be more dual boot options other than Asahi.

The hardest part is how many other hardware devices are custom. The Asahi team spends a ton of time figuring out how to make usable drivers for everything. Apple documented how to boot/install other OSes. They don’t document all of the hardware for third party driver support.

Show threadmccSep 2, 2024
@HitokiriEric @nicksalt also it seems to me that the new Mac linuces are much much more reverse engineered than prior Mac linuces. I am extremely concerned about how skin of teeth the GPU drivers in particular seem to be (although, in practice, they appear to perform better than PC GPU drivers…)
Show threadEric JenningsSep 2, 2024

@mcc @nicksalt Yeah. The intel macs still had mostly the same AMD and Intel graphics chips as regular PCs (or nvidia back in like 2010 or so before the feud started).

You could use the existing AMD/Intel drivers with mild modifications on those Apple laptops.

Now the graphics are custom Apple architecture and they’re not giving out the details to third party device driver programmers.

Luckily the Asahi team has some very talented people and honestly the graphics seem to be running great now and in my testing.

The other hardware drivers that also need to be reverse engineered are where there’s still flakiness to work out. Like Apple has custom hardware security on the microphone and last I heard Asahi is still working on that (although I don’t use it so didn’t care when I tested).

Show threadmccSep 2, 2024
@HitokiriEric It's just, me, the older I get, the less enthusiastic I get about living in places where I'm explicitly not wanted.
Show threadjemand2001Sep 2, 2024

@mcc @bloodinthewater @bls I hear good things about Asahi Linux[1] which is specifically made for apple silicon but I haven't tried it myself because close to nothing could get me to buy a mac.

[1] https://asahilinux.org/

Asahi Linux