I don't.

- MacBooks are still among the nicest if not the nicest laptops hardware-wise, so some people like to run Linux on it.

- People have older Macs that they like to repurpose. E.g., we still have an M1 Mini that was used by our daughter before she got handed down a MacBook from my wife. It's now collecting dust, but I might install Linux to use it as a headless server.

Also, this is Hacker News.

For me the definition of actively hostile would require a locked down device that needs an exploit/jailbreak to install and a cat&mouse patch/exploit cycle - but it seems that Apple intentionally designed this to be allowed - what is giving you the “actively hostile” impression?

I used Windows and Linux all my life, but got my first MacBook Air M this year. There is literally zero competition to it. It's an incredibly powerful and cheap yet fanless device. Also, it has uniform memory, which is awesome.

I wish I could install windows or linux on it because MacOS kind of sucks, but the device itself is amazing and reason enough to switch away from PCs.

Apple is surprisingly non-hostile toward these projects. They even fix bugs that only affect Linux: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/macos-release-note...

>Imagine deliberately buying a $2000+ computer that doesn't work with and is actively hostile towards your OS of choice

That's how Linux has been for PCs also for most of its lifetime. Only in the recent 5-10 years things have kind of improved, slightly.

Macbook hardware is superb. I understand why people are interested in replacing the (in some parts) lackluster operating system Apple forces into it.

> I struggle to wrap my mind around it. It's like buying an EV so you can convert it to work on gasoline.

What about buying a really nice gasoline car and convert it to an EV?

How do you think Linux gets to run on proprietary undocumented hardware generally?

Apple hardware is so much better than the alternatives that people will dump thousands of hours into getting it to work with their preferred software

I got an M2 macbook air with 16GB ram and 1TB SSD for $700 and install Asahi Arch Linux and am planning on migrating it to Omarchy now that it supports M chips. It's my favorite laptop out of the Dell XPS, Precisions, and thinkpads that I own. The fact I can get 7-9 hours of battery life, have everything feels snappy while I'm doing Dev work and have a very crisp display all at the same time puts the Intel/AMD chips to shame. Supposedly Intel is actually giving Apple a run for its money this year after 6 years of being left in the dust, so maybe I'll get something Intel next year.

To go with your analogy, if I can buy an electric car and replace the engine in it with something that does what I want and gives me 95% of the usable features of the locked down engine that it ships with, why wouldn't I do that? Especially when the rest of the cars on the market are getting 100 miles to a charge when my Apple M2 is getting 300?

imagine being so obtuse you go around judging how other people choose to have fun and spend their own money and "pretend you don't get it".

Dino fuel generator hooked up to Tesla EV: https://youtube.com/shorts/46bRaGP4uqM