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> Their main profit is in selling the hardware Not anymore - it's now about selling services to get recurring income. E.g. App Store (to extort money from deve

> Their main profit is in selling the hardware Not anymore - it's now about selling services to get recurring income. E.g. App Store (to extort money from developers), Apple Care, Apple Pay and iCloud (from users) etc. That is why they are locking down the Mac systems too, and making it a closed system like the iPhone / iPad platform. They have been doing this for a while now. The only thing that now differentiates an M1 mac to an iPad or iPhone is that the bootloader is not locked on the M1, and so you can still theoretically install another OS. (Ofcourse, the practical reality is that due to the closed box nature of the M1 Apple Silicons SoC, non-macOS OS can't exploit the full benefit of the hardware and will always offer subpar performance).

_ph_ 5y ago
No, they are not locking down the Mac, Asahi Linux is a good example of that. Also, they are not locking down users of MacOS. As I wrote in a separate post, they do have some incentive to sell hardware for Linux enthusiasts. Those wouldn't have considered a Mac otherwise. And if they have a Mac, they would try also MacOS and all Apple offerings.
- webmobdev 5y ago
  > No, they are not locking down the Mac It is quite evident now that Apple has been locking down the macs: 1. The first few Intel Mac Minis allowed you some level of customisation of both the hardware (change RAM or HDD / SSD) and software (install other full featured OS). 2. Then came the Mac Minis with soldered RAM and SSD. You could no longer customise the hardware. Software was still customisable and you could still install other OSes. (Recall that Apple even offered free drivers for another OS, i.e. Windows). 3. The current generation of M1 Minis now doesn't allow you to customise both the hardware (everything is soldered) and the software (no other viable OS except macOS). Technically you can install other OSes, but the reality is that currently only crippled versions of Linux and xBSD is available and practically the only full-featured OS available for it is macOS. The only difference between the M1 mac platform and the iPhone / iPad platform is the unlocked bootloader on the macs. And the only reason they haven't locked it yet is because they know that as soon as they do it, many will avoid it. They are just waiting for the M1 Macs to reach a criticial level of acceptance before they do so. (And till then, the lack of an alternative full featured OS to the macOS, currently works to their advantage). > Asahi Linux is a good example of that Asahi Linux is a distro built on existing ARM based Linux. Apple Silicon is built with ARM chips, so it is not surprising that ARM Linux could be ported to it. But it will be never be as full featured as macOS on the M1 because no device drivers exist for it on the M1 platform. While their aim to reverse engineer the hardware is laudable, I see it as a pointless endeavor as it will take years, and Apple doesn't want any other OS to run on it. From their perspective, any other full features OS hinders with the built-in plannned obsolescence built into the M1, and also cuts into the recurring revenue model built into the services in macOS (iCloud, App Store, Apple Care etc).
  - _ph_ 5y ago
    The Intel Mac Minis don't have soldered RAM, it can be upgraded, though it is deep inside the device. The M1 Macs have soldered RAM and SSD, but here there is a clear technical tradeoff giving much better performance. Asahi Linux contains device drivers for the M1 Macs, quite a bit of their work has been accepted to the Linux kernel already. GPU drivers are pretty close too. Apple does explicitly allow other OSes to run on their hardware, they explicitly enabled that.

_ph_ 5y ago

No, they are not locking down the Mac, Asahi Linux is a good example of that. Also, they are not locking down users of MacOS. As I wrote in a separate post, they do have some incentive to sell hardware for Linux enthusiasts. Those wouldn't have considered a Mac otherwise. And if they have a Mac, they would try also MacOS and all Apple offerings.

webmobdev 5y ago
> No, they are not locking down the Mac It is quite evident now that Apple has been locking down the macs: 1. The first few Intel Mac Minis allowed you some level of customisation of both the hardware (change RAM or HDD / SSD) and software (install other full featured OS). 2. Then came the Mac Minis with soldered RAM and SSD. You could no longer customise the hardware. Software was still customisable and you could still install other OSes. (Recall that Apple even offered free drivers for another OS, i.e. Windows). 3. The current generation of M1 Minis now doesn't allow you to customise both the hardware (everything is soldered) and the software (no other viable OS except macOS). Technically you can install other OSes, but the reality is that currently only crippled versions of Linux and xBSD is available and practically the only full-featured OS available for it is macOS. The only difference between the M1 mac platform and the iPhone / iPad platform is the unlocked bootloader on the macs. And the only reason they haven't locked it yet is because they know that as soon as they do it, many will avoid it. They are just waiting for the M1 Macs to reach a criticial level of acceptance before they do so. (And till then, the lack of an alternative full featured OS to the macOS, currently works to their advantage). > Asahi Linux is a good example of that Asahi Linux is a distro built on existing ARM based Linux. Apple Silicon is built with ARM chips, so it is not surprising that ARM Linux could be ported to it. But it will be never be as full featured as macOS on the M1 because no device drivers exist for it on the M1 platform. While their aim to reverse engineer the hardware is laudable, I see it as a pointless endeavor as it will take years, and Apple doesn't want any other OS to run on it. From their perspective, any other full features OS hinders with the built-in plannned obsolescence built into the M1, and also cuts into the recurring revenue model built into the services in macOS (iCloud, App Store, Apple Care etc).
- _ph_ 5y ago
  The Intel Mac Minis don't have soldered RAM, it can be upgraded, though it is deep inside the device. The M1 Macs have soldered RAM and SSD, but here there is a clear technical tradeoff giving much better performance. Asahi Linux contains device drivers for the M1 Macs, quite a bit of their work has been accepted to the Linux kernel already. GPU drivers are pretty close too. Apple does explicitly allow other OSes to run on their hardware, they explicitly enabled that.