Last year, Apple announced that the Mac will be transitioning from Intel to Apple Silicon – its own in-house designed chips and manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). The transition is to take two years to complete, as said by Apple CEO Tim Cook during the Keynote at the annual developers conference WWDC (2020).
It takes time to add native support for apps and even kernels. It was recently reported by AppleInsider that the latest version of Linux kernel (version 5.13) has introduced support for Apple Silicon. The kernel will now work with the first Apple Silicon chip – the M1. Linux 5.13 is now available as a release candidate which means it is now available for testing by the general public.
Simpler and easier to run Linux on M1 Macs in future
Previously, some security researchers had reported that they were able to “successfully” boot Linux on M1 based Macs. However, the process is not simple and requires some technical knowledge. The new Linux kernel makes running Linux distributions on Apple Silicon chips – M1 and all the chips set to release in the future – much simpler and easier.
Linux 5.13 also brings a range of new drivers and also some updated drives which will improve the working of the kernel. It also brings many under-the-hood improvements to the file system, tooling, process handling, and architectures. AppleInsider notes that there are many more updates as well.
While only the public testing build of Linux 5.13 is available as of now, the final version of the same is expected to release at the end of June or sometime in July, according to 9To5Linux. AppleInsider jokingly adds that the release schedule would depend on the number of release candidates the Linux creator Trovalds decides to make.
Apple is expected to unveil the successor to the M1 chip later this year.
