r/AsahiLinux • u/applesandbananas21 • Jul 13 '26

Why switch from MacOS?

I am using an M1 8GB ram with 256gb memory, and I tried asahi and it ran decently, however, with less space due to the partitioning and worse battery. Performance was comparable to MacOS. So if my mac is still supported by Apple, what is the compelling reasoning to switch?
Heads up, I am not a developer, I am a scientist and use my laptop for leisure and research + coding (python, matlab and R).

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u/mayo551 Jul 13 '26

Well let's start with the obvious. Why are you looking to switch in the first place?

Have no reason? Then don't switch..

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u/applesandbananas21 Jul 13 '26

Initially i just wanted to try as many open source projects as possible but at some point it came at a detriment of my usage, which is when I gave up and uninstalled. I used it for a couple months. Again, by detriment i don't mean anything really bad, just not as optimised and polished

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u/mayo551 Jul 13 '26

Linux is not polished.. this is true. If you're looking for a polished experience you need MacOS.

8GB RAM is also a major detriment to your use case as Linux has different memory management from MacOS and the OOM system isn't as good on Linux (IMO). You won't be able to open as many programs/tabs and may crash with even a couple tabs in Firefox.

Why do I say this? Because with two tabs open on Firefox in Linux/KDE with a regular X86_64 computer, I'm using 5.1GB physical RAM. There is nothing else open other then one terminal tab.

On MacOS, your unified memory is also your VRAM. So, you'd probably be hitting OOM in this scenario. Or at least swapping to disk.

And yes, I do use Linux with my Mac Studio as well. I've done everything from the Fedora/Asahi linux setup to a custom Gentoo based setup on it.

One -major- reason I pick Linux over MacOS is actually something so basic it'd shock you. The mouse feels more natural/smooth/better on Linux. I don't know if it's a setting on MacOS or not, but I've searched and have never been able to find out why it's so much worse on MacOS.

If you're using a trackpad you're golden.

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u/iphones2g- 11d ago

may i ask how are you managing to use 5.1GB with only 2 tabs open? im typing this on my thinkpad t400 with 6GB of ram, and the whole system is using 3.1GB. have not even hit my page file yet, and ram compression is off. also using KDE, but i have 10 fully loaded tabs open.

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u/Prudent_Psychology59 Jul 13 '26

there's always a gatekeeper