I wrote “Strictly limited to MacOS, no Linux no nothing.”
To which you responded “Which, in the history of computing devices, certainly is nothing new. Apple, and others, has been doing this pretty much forever.”
So unless you did not articulate yourself clearly, that means exactly that you absolutely cannot do so. Which was false in the past. But for the Apple Neo it is largely true, unless you are talking about developing a solution yourself. There is nothing that works on it other than operating systems from Apple. If I am mistaken, please tell me which alternative OS does work on it.
On the other side, I have a Framework Desktop, simply because that was the only option for buying the Max 395+ on an ITX board, for my custom fanles PC project. I had zero problems installing off the mill Linux distros on it.
You can run Linux just fine on apple SOCs, multiple independent projects managed to run Linux on IPhones before. You do have to rewrite the device tree and all drivers, but that’s the case for all new hardware. People have done it before for the ARM chips in the apple silicons. (up to the M2 series at least)
The only real question is if the bootloader is unlockable or if the neo needs to be jailbroken like its the case with most iphones.
Its definetly not a good choice for Linux and it will take a few years even with the best case scenario, but its possible nonetheless.
I am aware of Asahi Linux (M1&M2). I am not aware of the other projects. Can you provide some links to those that provide a functional and usable OS for iPhone hardware. Which SOCs are they for?
The difference to other hardware, as far as I understand is that Apple offers very little documentation to third parties. Which is the reason why Asahi Linux is still stuck on M2 when there is already the M5 out. If it were so trivial, why don’t we have Asahi Linux for at least M3? It has been around for 3 years already.
It sounds like limited support, and I honestly have no idea why someone would do this. I think a better path to even alternative silicon Linux (non-x86 stuff) would be buying some type of ARM.
I wrote “Strictly limited to MacOS, no Linux no nothing.”
To which you responded “Which, in the history of computing devices, certainly is nothing new. Apple, and others, has been doing this pretty much forever.”
So unless you did not articulate yourself clearly, that means exactly that you absolutely cannot do so. Which was false in the past. But for the Apple Neo it is largely true, unless you are talking about developing a solution yourself. There is nothing that works on it other than operating systems from Apple. If I am mistaken, please tell me which alternative OS does work on it.
On the other side, I have a Framework Desktop, simply because that was the only option for buying the Max 395+ on an ITX board, for my custom fanles PC project. I had zero problems installing off the mill Linux distros on it.
You can run Linux just fine on apple SOCs, multiple independent projects managed to run Linux on IPhones before. You do have to rewrite the device tree and all drivers, but that’s the case for all new hardware. People have done it before for the ARM chips in the apple silicons. (up to the M2 series at least)
The only real question is if the bootloader is unlockable or if the neo needs to be jailbroken like its the case with most iphones.
Its definetly not a good choice for Linux and it will take a few years even with the best case scenario, but its possible nonetheless.
I am aware of Asahi Linux (M1&M2). I am not aware of the other projects. Can you provide some links to those that provide a functional and usable OS for iPhone hardware. Which SOCs are they for?
The difference to other hardware, as far as I understand is that Apple offers very little documentation to third parties. Which is the reason why Asahi Linux is still stuck on M2 when there is already the M5 out. If it were so trivial, why don’t we have Asahi Linux for at least M3? It has been around for 3 years already.
I wouldn’t buy a Mac to install Linux on it for a number of reasons, but I assumed someone somewhere had tried to install Linux on Apple silicon and I was correct. Apparently, asahi works on it: https://www.linuxnest.com/how-to-install-linux-on-a-macbook-m1-m2-m3-intel-the-complete-2025-guide/
It sounds like limited support, and I honestly have no idea why someone would do this. I think a better path to even alternative silicon Linux (non-x86 stuff) would be buying some type of ARM.