2026-03-20

I rarely talk about new tech because frankly I'm old and I'm fine
using old-tech. But I will mention Apple products in particular
partly because I'm genuinely torn about their new MacBook Neo.

On one side I'm genuinely impressed by the Neo. Apple has finally
answered the question of "how can we take powerful Cell Phone
processors and package them into useful general computing devices?"

Finally, someone has merged cellphone hardware with general purpose
computing in an actually useful way and the whole world can benefit
from the economies of scale this provides...

But on the other side...MacOS...sighhhhhhh

I know there are a lot of fans of MacOS out here in Unix-y land
but I'm just not a fan. I've owned many a Mac from MDD powermacs
to intel MacMinis but in every case I just can't wait to get rid
of MacOS and put on Linux.

And for Intel Macs that was no problem. But for the modern ARM
powered Macs, getting linux on the Mac is definitely an issue. I'm
hoping the Asahi Linux project gets a lot more support and interest
now that there are viable low-cost MacBook Neos that can be acquired.
In my opinion, Asahi Linux should immediately focus on getting
Linux working on the new Neos ahead of even getting M3 and newer
MacBooks.

I could probably write an entire other gopher phlog on all the
things that annoy me about MacOS but to be honest, someone has
probably already done it.

I will say that with the advent of MacOS containers, it might not
be that miserable to own a MacBook. Afterall, once Windows added
the Linux WSL2 system, my office computer became a whole lot more
fun to use.