I'm looking for an Apple MacBook Air M2 alternative that could run Linux.
I need something fanless, super lightweight with very long battery life. The only apps I use are Shotcut video editor, Chrome and Firefox.
Any advice?
Is it a good idea to get a MacBook Air m2 and use something like Asahi Linux or should I wait for arm linux laptops to become available.
The thinkpad-x13s-snapdragon is fanless and uses a qualcomm snapdragon processor, so an ARM like the macs use but lower performance. Batttery life is reputedly in the 20+ hour range.
Caveats:
- kinda pricey, 1K
- this arm chip is slow compared to macs.
- out of the mainstream so better do your homework on whether linux is well supported.
Laptops based on the snapdragon elite processors will come out this year, and performance should be comparable to the Mx macs. So maybe better to wait. Although, those may be considerably more expensive, and who knows what linux support will be like, especially at first.
It's tricky enough getting hardware video encode to work on Linux with "this is just an Intel IGP, the exact same thing as every other Intel IGP". Decode can even be tricky at times. I am very pessimistic about getting video editing software working on a system as far off the beaten path as a Snapdragon.
If you stick with more mainline hardware, you have fallback positions like "use linux Davinci" or "dual boot Windows and use one of the gazillion tools there", or "MacOS has its own cavalcade of media tools".
the m1 is fine with asahi. i don't personally own one but i've worked on em in the past and its getting better by the day still.
idk about the m2 but it seems fine. people complain about the battery life being worse on asahi.
it's gonna be years before arm laptops in general hit the scene in a big way and they'll have the same problems that smartphones and sbcs have (weird non mainline kernel support, etc).
that's not to say it isn't happening, just that it's happening slowly. you want to be in the big common platform as the transition to arm happens and like it or not, that's apple.
if i were you i'd get the m2 and dual boot asahi. when its broke you still got the apple os that works fine.
the Surface Go tablets and some of the older Surface pros are fanless but you will have nowhere near the performance of a M1/2 air
The only company that can achieve that kind of efficiency is Apple. I say this as a proud Apple hater.
It is not about efficiency, we already know for some time that x86 is not really efficient compared to newer architectures like arm and risc.
But no other ecosystem exists that can force such an architecture move without much much more problems.
So i would rephrase it as "The only company that can force that kind of fundamental change on its user and developers is Apple"
I am not saying it is a bad thing (just alone the rosetta translate layer is actually really impressive). Would love to have some actually good and mainstream arm options such as Linux Laptop.
it's a "quantum leap" only in the original scientific meaning of "the smallest distance something can possibly move"
The entire concept of "quantum" is that it's the smallest possible unit.
A "quantum leap" is the smallest measurable change in electrical charge.
The Planck length, based (it's a long story, links below) on that smallest possible charge, is around 1.61×10−35 m. (That's 0.00..00161, with about 31 more zeroes). Which is about as much societal/technical progress as I think Apple has made.
https://www.snexplores.org/article/explainer-quantum-world-super-small https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2019/06/26/what-is-the-smallest-possible-distance-in-the-universe/?sh=518af32248a1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck_units
Do it the Linux way and remove the fan yourself.
Just kidding. Or am I?
Rip out the fan and connect the processor heatsink to a heatpipe
Then carry around a cup of water to dip the heatpipe into
This is not a bit, I am a real hardware designer
I bought a used gen1 Thinkpad X1 Nano. It is super light (<1kg), works flawless out of the box with Linux, and while I think it does have a fan I've never noticed it.
I have a fanless, reasonably-light linux laptop from tuxedo. Unfortunately, it seems their current models are more powerful, more heavy and probably not fanless.
Did you consider dell xps or system76?
They aren't fanless, but I really love my XPS. Setting aside GPU related tasks (obv) this is the fastest thing I've ever sat in front of, by a wide margin. FWIW even at max the fans are audible but not ever loud. Maybe if you were working in a silent bank vault or something they would be, but in what I consider normal day to day usage they are never even close to an issue. For non-intensive tasks I don't hear them at all.
I have this system because by a crazy circumstance I was able to get it for nearly free in like-new condition. I would likely not have spent full price just because I don't have that kind of cash around most of the time. I absolutely love it. FWIW if you look at one of the others with the same chassis/keyboard design you'll find some repeating criticisms in the reviews - I've found most of them to be understandable but non-issues in the real world, so let me know if you have questions. Obv all depends on your use case...
The one thing I wish is that this was the 32GB model - but again, the price was very right. If I was buying that's what I'd go for. 16GB is plenty most of the time, but not all the time.
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It's not fanless but I was also thinking of the Lemur Pro. Apparently System76 will be bringing out a new design though next month
There are some purpose-built ARM Linux laptops available but as an owner of an unused Pinebook Pro.... can't recommend
Walking the path of a PC hater is not easy
I had the Pinebook Pro. It was pretty good, solidly built, had a 1080p screen and could handle Openshot video editor, web browsing and video playback. All I needed.
I didn't have it hooked up to an external display but according to the website it can handle 4K playback. Mainly used it for listening to music in Cmus whilst browsing in Firefox.
Battery life was pretty good, about 10 hours IIRC but mine just stopped booting after I left the battery dead for a few months.
Might buy another one though https://pine64.com/product-category/pinebook-pro/
