Passing the torch on Asahi Linux

With a heavy heart, we announce the resignation of Asahi Linux founder Hector Martin (marcan). His statement is on his blog. Asahi Linux brings Linux to Apple Silicon, supporting audio, webcams, graphics acceleration, and more. As the remaining developers, we are taking this as an opportunity to build sustainable project governance. No matter how talented an individual, a large project cannot rest on a single person’s shoulders. So instead of one replacement… we have seven:

When it comes to project decision-making, we will share equal power in accordance with our new governance. Nobody’s contributions last forever. These governance changes will allow the project to persist as developers come and go.

Asahi Linux relies primarily on volunteer contributors. Although some contributors have individual Patreon or GitHub Sponsors accounts, individual funding streams cannot sustain a team. Going forward, our new fiscal sponsor Open Source Collective will instead facilitate donations to the project as a whole.

Our Open Collective therefore replaces marcan’s Patreon as the primary funding source for the project. The Patreon will wind down soon. Four years ago, your Patreon support made this project possible. As his Patreon is winding down, today we ask for your support to make the project possible for years to come. Your support will allow us to purchase hardware and fund developer time. Please consider joining us on Open Collective to continue supporting the project.

What can you look forward to in 2025?

Our priority is kernel upstreaming. Our downstream Linux tree contains over 1000 patches required for Apple Silicon that are not yet in upstream Linux. The upstream kernel moves fast, requiring us to constantly rebase our changes on top of upstream while battling merge conflicts and regressions. Janne, Neal, and marcan have rebased our tree for years, but it is laborious with so many patches. Before adding more, we need to reduce our patch stack to remain sustainable long-term. We cannot predict how the process will go, but we are committed to do our part.

The other sustainability issue is testing. We must ensure that every supported feature works on all supported hardware, with no regressions over time. As we support more features and hardware, the testing requirements explode. Unfortunately, manual testing is time-intensive, and bugs still slip through. The solution is continuous integration (CI) that automatically tests Asahi Linux on many devices. Like upstreaming, building this infrastructure is not glamorous, but it will protect the project’s long-term health.

Where do the M3 and M4 fit in? Until upstreaming and CI progress, the core team cannot prioritize new hardware. Nevertheless, some community members are busy reverse-engineering to prepare for when the foundations are solid.

Of course, there are new features coming for M1 and M2 devices. In 2025, we expect to release…

  • DP alt mode, required for external monitors over USB-C on laptops without a physical HDMI port.
  • Sparse images in our Vulkan driver, enabling DirectX 12. In the mean time, you can enjoy DirectX 11 games on Asahi Linux.
  • Internal microphones. External mics already work via the 3.5mm jack, and internal mics are coming soon.

How soon? On select laptops – just a few days! Microphone support is made possible by a collaboration between James, chaos_princess, and Eileen Yoon. On Apple Silicon, the microphones require kernel support for multiple hardware blocks, including the Always-On Processor (AOP) and the Secure Enclave (SEP), as well as userspace support for beamforming to make sure the audio sounds great. It’s not just samples-in, samples-out… but those three were up to the challenge.

Today’s news is bittersweet. We are grateful to marcan for kicking off this project and tirelessly working on it these past years. Our community will miss him. Still, with your support, the project has a bright future to come.

The Asahi Linux team · 2025-02-13