OpenGL 3.1 on Asahi Linux

This is great work and I commend it. But in other threads people are acting like Asahi Linux hardware support is 100% complete. My fear is that if I were to go this route and purchase the hardware I'd be seeing fraction of the performance and capability I would in Mac OS. To be honest this blog post seems like the project has a long ways to go, not that it is nearly completion.

I just can't justify buying hardware from a company that is so hostile to developers and hackers as nice as it may be.

> I just can't justify buying hardware from a company that is so hostile to developers and hackers as nice as it may be.

I don't think it's hostile, I think they're just hands-off; they throw the hardware over the fence and say, "if you wanna make use of it, here's our software; if you don't like our software, sorry no docs but you're free to write your own". Which is exactly what's happening.

I mean it would be nice if Apple had released more documentation, but I totally understand if they don't want the burden of supporting it.

First, personally I don't care what hardware or software people use, if they are happy with the tools that they using then that's good.

That said, Apple has been very hostile to hackers over the years imo. Hardware being hard to repair, access, upgrade, etc. I think at one point they were making it virtually impossible to replace components because they were serial locked.

As far as I am aware, progress Apple as made has been in response to public image issues or changes in consumer laws within the EU.

Plus Apple software is heavily indebted to Open Source software so they very easily could be releasing drivers for their hardware instead of relying on community to do backwards engineering.

“I think at one point they were making it virtually impossible to replace components because they were serial locked.”

They are very much still doing that

In fairness, most instances of them doing that actually significantly increase the cost of evil maid hardware tampering attacks.

If I could, I'd configure grub or whatever to serial-lock my Linux install to my desktop hardware (and keep a recovery key that would unlock it at another location).

The issue is that Apple isn’t giving anyone access to the tools to pair the parts, unless you give them all the information in advance, buy them at possibly inflated prices through their self repair program if they’re even available, and then have Apple remotely approve it afterwards (and this process only really works for individuals, 3rd party repair is more important as most people don’t have the skill)

If I was running a third-party unauthorized repair shop, then I'd care. However, I just don't see why I should care, as a customer. Also, I have trouble wrapping my head around the standpoint that people want to pay the Apple "it always sort of works" tax, then spend lots of extra time trying to save $50 on a repair.

When I mess around with hobby hardware, it's esoteric stuff, not readily-available laptops that are being built by the millions. For that, sometimes you need a volt-ohm meter, or diagnostic rigs.

Every few years I even bring some piece of a Linux box to a repair shop, to narrow down some fault.

However, Macs are all identical, so repairs boil down to "yank component, throw in the recycling shredder box, and (if you just replaced the mainboard) restore from iCloud Backup". Apple hardware switched over to being livestock, not pets a long time ago, so I'm not seeing the point in spending lots of effort on custom repairs (vs. replacing + recycling the bad components).