Last year Apple pulled the wraps from M1 processors. The M1 processor is doing duty on the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. Now Linux is reportedly working on extending support to M1 Mac in the upcoming Linux 5.13.

Linux on M1 Mac is still far from perfect. According to the report, it offers basic functionality and can be added to the Linux 5.13 kernel. The Linux 5.13 Kernel stable version will be released in June this year.

Since earlier this year have been a few rounds of Apple M1 Linux kernel patches for bringing up the essential drivers needed to get the Linux kernel booting on the 2020 Mac Mini, MacBook Pro MacBook Air powered by the in-house Apple Silicon. It’s in good enough shape that this very early code is likely to indeed land for Linux 5.13, which in turn will debut as stable in the June timeframe.

The report adds

This initial Apple M1 Linux port gets the UART, interrupts, SMP, and DeviceTree bits in place for offering basic functionality. There is also a SimpleFB-based frame-buffer, but getting working 3D/video acceleration will obviously be a daunting challenge.

Linux also needs to work on Apple M1 graphics to make it work seamlessly. We could see M1 Macs officially supporting Linux this year. However, the report claims it might take more time for “a reliable” version to arrive.

Our Take

It has been less than a year since Apple made the transition to M1 chips. As expected, the software ecosystem for M1 Mac is still in infancy. Developers are adding support for M1 Macs to their apps. However, it will likely take a lot of time to resolve compatibility issues. M1 Mac doesnt come with the Bootcamp feature and misses out on virtualization support.