38 pointsby signa115 hours ago9 comments
  • edg500029 minutes ago
    > there was no org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.nvidia in Flatpak repositories for AArch64

    All he had to do was build some packages from source, right? It's really worth learning how to do this, since it removes a lot of constraints.

    And the kernel patch should land in the kernel pretty soon, I hope? He won't have to run a patched kernel forever. Should be possible to get that in a release in a year or so?

  • dn35009 minutes ago
    I don't understand the kernel problem. Why did he feel he had to rebuild the kernel weekly? When the amdgpu stopped working why couldn't he just go back to the last working kernel?
  • HerbManic3 hours ago
    I'm not surprised at the outcome. These Ampere system single core/thread performance is pretty low and that is where you feel it. The OS/software simply cannot allocate the threads across enough cores effectively to make up for this difference.

    This is why things like the Apple M Series feels so fast, because while they don't win the multi core performance especially when going up against a 80 core beast like this, they have single thread performance exactly were it is needed.

    Maybe we will need 80 cores in future, that is cool but for daily home use it is still just way too much for what we need.

  • fragmede12 minutes ago
    Fascinating! I've been running the laptop version-ish of this experiment with the 14M9610, and my major complaint is Device Tree sucks. It's been explained to me why all of ARM can't just enumerate devices like PCs do, but it still sucks. This means every ARM device starts off in custom kernel territory, which makes all sorts of hacks okay to begin with, since you need a custom kernel anyway.
  • anthonj2 hours ago
    I see the problem, but I don't see a clear analysis on the actual source of the problem. I assumed the issue was mainly single core performance, but he is also suggesting context switches could be the cause?

    So could you fix that with a new scheduler? Or you just need another SoC with better single core performance? I could imagine that the latter already exists, just not in soc with >16 cores. My naive view is that such high core count system comes with tradoff on core size and interconnect/memeory bus complexity.

    And I mean.. my phone is a middle lower end device and for sure I can play youtube videos (maybe in a popup as well) and run the browser without noticing that much difference from my laptop.

    • KaiserProan hour ago
      I think the single core performance would be bearable if it wasn't combined with maintaining a custom built kernel.
  • rvzan hour ago
    The AArch64 desktop experiment started in 2020 with the Macbook M1 and it ended in 2026 with great success with Apple phasing out support for Intel.

    It is called Apple Silicon.

    • jeroenhd13 minutes ago
      If you think running a Linux desktop on an Ampere is bad, try running it on an M5 Mac!
    • preisschildan hour ago
      Which is somewhat useless because it doesn't properly support ACPI/UEFI so that you can boot other operating systems
      • laurencerowean hour ago
        Wasn’t booting other operating systems supported from early on (two months after release of M1)? It was reverse engineering the graphics hardware that took time and effort.
      • boxedan hour ago
        Linux on apple silicon is a thing though: https://asahilinux.org/
        • preisschild42 minutes ago
          True, but they had to implement their own bootloader chain and because of such overhead they need a lot of effort to port to each new apple SoC generation
  • __patchbit__4 hours ago
    Can the ThinkPad T14 ARM Snapdragon variant function without pain as a daily Linux/BSD driver?
    • sedatk2 hours ago
      Snapdragon has excellent single-thread performance (unlike Ampere) if that’s what you’re asking.
    • izacus2 hours ago
      No. The driver support is very poor and won't run at all well.

      Even. Setting it up is a pain: https://github.com/Jeremiah-Hawley/Linux-on-Snapdragon

      It can run Windows well though.

    • shevy-java3 hours ago
      Without pain? I mean, there is pain when using Linux. It just works better than, say, Windows.
      • hparadiz24 minutes ago
        I just setup Gentoo on a Lenovo laptop last week. It was the least painful process for a Linux laptop of my entire career. Everything just works. Even sleep and the fingerprint sensor for sudo. LLM tuis replaced Google entirely.

        I can't even say there was any pain whatsoever. The experience is now more akin to MacOS circa 10.6.x years.

        • izacus3 minutes ago
          Was it a Snapdragon laptop? Because if it wasn't, then it has nothing to do with the OPs question.
  • cmrdporcupinean hour ago
    I use a DGX Spark every day as my daily driver and it's great. I barely use the "AI" facilities of it, but as an Aarch64 desktop Linux, I have no complaints.
  • shevy-java3 hours ago
    The Desktop Linux will take over from here guys. Next year it will be ready, together with GNU Hurd for everyone and their Grandma.
    • mort96an hour ago
      Has anyone ever pretended that (non-Apple) ARM hardware running Linux makes for a remotely suitable desktop experience for the general public or are you shadow boxing here?