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Run Linux on M1 Mac or buy a separate laptop for it?

TJ82 said:
... so maybe virtualisation would be good? Or is it just better off to get a Linux laptop?
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Which is best depends on what you are going to do with Linux. Is there just one or a few Linux-only apps you need to run? Then a virtual machine works well. But maybe you are doing machine learning experiments?. Then I know first hand, you want a powerful Linux desktop.

Actually, most of what runs on Linux also runs on the Mac. The Mac is after all UNIX-based.
 
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Sorry maybe I should have said what I wanted it for! Looking to get into the cybersecurity area, so will be learning on it and maybe end up using it for work someday, too. Unsure how demanding cybersecurity apps are on Linux. I'm doing a course at the moment and learning basic Linux and cybersecurity and it ends next week - I'd prefer to keep learning so I don't forget and rather keep building instead!
 
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Try Linux virtualised on the hardware you already have, UTM and the free version of VMware Fusion are two good possibilities to do that. If you run into something that requires bare metal Linux you can still get a PC for that, or a Raspberry Pi if that's enough.
 
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TJ82 said:
Sorry maybe I should have said what I wanted it for! Looking to get into the cybersecurity area, so will be learning on it and maybe end up using it for work someday, too. Unsure how demanding cybersecurity apps are on Linux. I'm doing a course at the moment and learning basic Linux and cybersecurity and it ends next week - I'd prefer to keep learning so I don't forget and rather keep building instead!
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Cybersecurity typically deals with network mainly?, so virtualised environment should be ideal. You can screw it up and restore from a snapshot or backup easily.
 
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Virtualization is your only option, Asahi still isn't quite there for beginners. For Kali that's not even a disadvantage, few people daily-drive it, it's mostly virtualized even on Linux boxes. Get UTM (free from their website or the paid, autoupdating version from the App Store), in the app click Browse UTM Gallery, choose Kali, and it'll guide you through everything.
 
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TJ82 said:
I have an M1 Mac Studio and want to run the Kali Linux distro but they warn on their install page that Apple silicon is a disaster!
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From a quick look at the Kali site it seems that they only really support x86/amd64 processors. You will probably still be able to run it using UTM but that will require full emulation so the performance won’t be great.

UTM is free, so you might as well give it a whirl but it will probably run better on an old, cheap PC (or Intel Mac).

Other popular Linux distros have well-developed ARM64 versions that run well under virtualisation on an Apple Silicon Mac - but it sounds like you specifically want Kali for cybersecurity work.
 
Run it in a VM. linux in a vm on m series smokes.

I do have a copy of Kali running in a VM on m1 pro (parallels has it as a default download), haven’t used it much yet as I’m new to Kali (not new to linux though)
 
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Thumb up for Ubuntu Arm on UTM.

Have multiple VM´s running also at the same time with UTM.

Just install the Ubuntu Arm Server Image. Fast and stable.
Have also Windows 11 Arm on UTM.

No Gaming only Dev.
 
Hello,

I tested Asahi Linux on my MacBook Pro M2, for the moment we are very limited, no blutooth, wifi etc..

I prefer native because it seems to me, correct me if I'm wrong, that there are limitations with certain USB peripherals.
 
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obviously when there's a finished version, right now it's unusable, I only tested it for a few minutes, I should have said so. 😅

Just to say it's going to happen too.
 
TJ82 said:
Sorry maybe I should have said what I wanted it for! Looking to get into the cybersecurity area, so will be learning on it and maybe end up using it for work someday, too. Unsure how demanding cybersecurity apps are on Linux. I'm doing a course at the moment and learning basic Linux and cybersecurity and it ends next week - I'd prefer to keep learning so I don't forget and rather keep building instead!
Click to expand...
Coming from someone who has been doing cybersecurity work for a while, you definitely want to virtualize Kali Linux. That said, you can also install homebrew and get the majority of the tools on Kali Linux working on macOS natively too.

Cybersecurity is a very broad category with many applications and areas of focus. Is there a particular area you are focused on learning?
 
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TJ82 said:
I have an M1 Mac Studio and want to run the Kali Linux distro but they warn on their install page that Apple silicon is a disaster!

https://www.kali.org/docs/installation/hard-disk-install-on-mac/

I would still want to keep my Mac OS so maybe virtualisation would be good? Or is it just better off to get a Linux laptop?
Click to expand...

I had Windows virtualization on my Intel MBP. I hated it.

I ended up getting a Lenovo which I really like.
 
TJ82 said:
Sorry maybe I should have said what I wanted it for! Looking to get into the cybersecurity area, so will be learning on it and maybe end up using it for work someday, too. Unsure how demanding cybersecurity apps are on Linux. I'm doing a course at the moment and learning basic Linux and cybersecurity and it ends next week - I'd prefer to keep learning so I don't forget and rather keep building instead!
Click to expand...
Virtualized is fine for that usage. You could also rent a VPS to play around with remotely.
 
I bought a Razer Blade Stealth to run Windows and Linux. Far better setup and system built with high quality materials. Only problem is some drivers are finicky.
 
For learning a VM will probably be fine but you can only virtualize arm 64 linux images. If you forsee needing x86 comaptibility a seperate machine is probably best. If you can, I'd recommend a framework!
 
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