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I wonder if Apple has a secret internal Linux distribution in use on Mx. I seem to recall reading that they had an x86/x86-64 internal distribution but maybe I

I wonder if Apple has a secret internal Linux distribution in use on Mx. I seem to recall reading that they had an x86/x86-64 internal distribution but maybe I am thinking of another company...

Wowfunhappy 4y ago
According to marcan’s twitter Apple likely has an internal one for silicon validation, but it’s probably not complete / something you’d want to use as a daily driver.
quesera 4y ago
Apple had an internal project of OSX running on x86 (amd64?) for a while before they got serious about it. It's less likely that they have an internal ARM/Mx Linux project though. Doesn't serve any known purpose that I'm aware of.
- fweimer 4y ago
  What operating system(s) do they use to run their cloud services? Given that MacOS has moved in a different direction for many years, it seems a bit unlikely that they run that at this point.
  - quesera 4y ago
    I think it's all Linux these days.
- monocasa 4y ago
  There's a rumor that they have an internal Linux distro that the silicon validation team at Apple uses on their hardware so that they don't have dependencies on the software division.
  - quesera 4y ago
    I recall reading that was only for bringup though, not full peripheral support? Either way, that's a good point and does have clear internal utility. It's certainly easier to get Linux running on a new chip than OSX!
    - philistine 4y ago
      > It's certainly easier to get Linux running on a new chip than OSX! I'd say that's wrong. From the outside view, perhaps, but an internal Apple team can certainly get macOS to sing and dance on whatever they need very quickly.
      - quesera 4y ago
        Good point. The x86 OSX port was created and initially maintained by a single person, if the folklore is accurate. A similar effort for Linux would usually benefit from related work by many people. For OSX or macOS it would need to be an explicit project, starting with fewer initial bits. But the internal Apple team would be exactly the right experts for the job, so it would be easier to organize at least.
tcmart14 4y ago
I don't know for a fact, but I am pretty sure they probably do. The question is, what role does it play in the organization? So for me, what I think they probably have an internal distro for is for their some of their servers. If that is the only case, it probably doesnt mean much, but that may not be the case. I could definitely see them having an internal distro that helps with some low level development and testing.

I wonder if Apple has a secret internal Linux distribution in use on Mx. I seem to recall reading that they had an x86/x86-64 internal distribution but maybe I am thinking of another company...

Wowfunhappy 4y ago

According to marcan’s twitter Apple likely has an internal one for silicon validation, but it’s probably not complete / something you’d want to use as a daily driver.

quesera 4y ago

Apple had an internal project of OSX running on x86 (amd64?) for a while before they got serious about it. It's less likely that they have an internal ARM/Mx Linux project though. Doesn't serve any known purpose that I'm aware of.

fweimer 4y ago
What operating system(s) do they use to run their cloud services? Given that MacOS has moved in a different direction for many years, it seems a bit unlikely that they run that at this point.
- quesera 4y ago
  I think it's all Linux these days.
monocasa 4y ago
There's a rumor that they have an internal Linux distro that the silicon validation team at Apple uses on their hardware so that they don't have dependencies on the software division.
- quesera 4y ago
  I recall reading that was only for bringup though, not full peripheral support? Either way, that's a good point and does have clear internal utility. It's certainly easier to get Linux running on a new chip than OSX!
  - philistine 4y ago
    > It's certainly easier to get Linux running on a new chip than OSX! I'd say that's wrong. From the outside view, perhaps, but an internal Apple team can certainly get macOS to sing and dance on whatever they need very quickly.
    - quesera 4y ago
      Good point. The x86 OSX port was created and initially maintained by a single person, if the folklore is accurate. A similar effort for Linux would usually benefit from related work by many people. For OSX or macOS it would need to be an explicit project, starting with fewer initial bits. But the internal Apple team would be exactly the right experts for the job, so it would be easier to organize at least.

tcmart14 4y ago

I don't know for a fact, but I am pretty sure they probably do. The question is, what role does it play in the organization? So for me, what I think they probably have an internal distro for is for their some of their servers. If that is the only case, it probably doesnt mean much, but that may not be the case. I could definitely see them having an internal distro that helps with some low level development and testing.