I’d argue that Apple hardware is their greatest strength. It’s just hard to see that when their anti-consumer behavior and proprietary software gets in the way. If their laptops were able to run fully on free software without compromise, I’d have no problem buying their stuff.
Linux, they want to be able to put Linux on it without sacrificing any performance or battery life. You can put Linux on it (Asahi Linux) but it will likely never be as performant and efficient as macOS solely because the teams at apple work incredibly well together, they know the system inside and out, they know what its capable of running at and how far it can be pushed or how much can be placed on the efficiency cores etc.
That and many pieces of open-source software are only available for Windows and Linux (and maybe FreeBSD). It’s not uncommon for developers to not want to pay the Apple Tax to port their app across, and it’s also not uncommon for Apple users to pay for proprietary apps that have open-source equivalents on other OSes.
Your expectation is that they dedicate the time to ensure a third party OS that they don’t want people using, and that no one wants to use, operates properly on their machines. Why would they do that?
They could be more like AMD in that regard, to answer your question:
Direct contributions to Linux kernel: AMD contributes directly to the Linux kernel, providing open-source drivers like amdgpu, which supports a wide range of AMD graphics cards.
Mesa 3D Graphics Library: AMD supports the Mesa project, which implements open-source graphics drivers, including those for AMD GPUs, enhancing performance and compatibility with OpenGL and Vulkan APIs.
AMDVLK and RADV Vulkan drivers: AMD has released AMDVLK, their official open-source Vulkan driver. In addition to this, there's also RADV, an independent Mesa-based Vulkan driver for AMD GPUs.
Open Source Firmware: AMD has released open-source firmware for some of their GPUs, enabling better integration and functionality with the Linux kernel.
ROCm (Radeon Open Compute): An open-source platform providing GPU support for compute-oriented tasks, including machine learning and high-performance computing, compatible with AMD GPUs.
AMDGPU-PRO Driver: While primarily a proprietary driver, AMDGPU-PRO includes an open-source component that can be used independently, offering compatibility and performance for professional and gaming use.
X.Org Driver (xf86-video-amdgpu): An open-source X.Org driver for AMD graphics cards, providing support for 2D graphics, video acceleration, and display features.
GPUOpen: A collection of tools, libraries, and SDKs for game developers and other professionals to optimize the performance of AMD GPUs in various applications, many of which are open source.
It demands both a dock and a title bar, a huge waste of vertical space on screens that are vertically limited
There’s no way of globally enabling hidden files and folders (you can do it for finder through the terminal, but can’t do it for the file picker windows)
It doesn’t support multi-stream transport, so despite being all about simplicity you cannot display more than two display port screens over a thunderbolt connection, whereas windows can do 4.
It doesn’t support sub pixel rendering, making text look blurry AF on 1080p and any other screens that aren’t super high res
MacOS has its oddities though. Some of its coreutils aren’t quite BSD but they’re not quite GNU either, so sometimes scripts have to either special-case MacOS or ensure they use options that only work across GNU, BSD and MacOS. This is an example of one I had to fix a few years back: https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/issues/1984
I have zero qualms with MacOS, only the hardware and the horrific anti-consumer company.
I’d argue that Apple hardware is their greatest strength. It’s just hard to see that when their anti-consumer behavior and proprietary software gets in the way. If their laptops were able to run fully on free software without compromise, I’d have no problem buying their stuff.
What free software is it not able to run?
Linux, they want to be able to put Linux on it without sacrificing any performance or battery life. You can put Linux on it (Asahi Linux) but it will likely never be as performant and efficient as macOS solely because the teams at apple work incredibly well together, they know the system inside and out, they know what its capable of running at and how far it can be pushed or how much can be placed on the efficiency cores etc.
That and many pieces of open-source software are only available for Windows and Linux (and maybe FreeBSD). It’s not uncommon for developers to not want to pay the Apple Tax to port their app across, and it’s also not uncommon for Apple users to pay for proprietary apps that have open-source equivalents on other OSes.
LOL how is that their fault?
What do you mean?
Your expectation is that they dedicate the time to ensure a third party OS that they don’t want people using, and that no one wants to use, operates properly on their machines. Why would they do that?
They could be more like AMD in that regard, to answer your question:
Do you think if AMD created their own very successful and very good OS that they would take the time to support any other?
Not my expectations,the user who posted above me. I fully understand part of the reason macOS is so good is because it’s the only OS they focus on.
There are many qualms to have with it as an OS
It demands both a dock and a title bar, a huge waste of vertical space on screens that are vertically limited
There’s no way of globally enabling hidden files and folders (you can do it for finder through the terminal, but can’t do it for the file picker windows)
It doesn’t support multi-stream transport, so despite being all about simplicity you cannot display more than two display port screens over a thunderbolt connection, whereas windows can do 4.
It doesn’t support sub pixel rendering, making text look blurry AF on 1080p and any other screens that aren’t super high res
Right, well, I didn’t say it was perfect.
MacOS has its oddities though. Some of its coreutils aren’t quite BSD but they’re not quite GNU either, so sometimes scripts have to either special-case MacOS or ensure they use options that only work across GNU, BSD and MacOS. This is an example of one I had to fix a few years back: https://github.com/yarnpkg/yarn/issues/1984