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Asahi Linux status in 2026: M1/M2 yes, M3/M4 no
If you want Linux on a MacBook in 2026, buy an M1 or M2 machine, not an M3 or M4. That single line decides most purchases, and the rest of this page is the detail behind it.
Linux on Apple Silicon means Asahi Linux. There is no other path: no proprietary Apple driver, no generic fallback, no dual-GPU trick. Either the Asahi project has reverse engineered the silicon in your MacBook or it does not run. The flagship distribution is Fedora Asahi Remix. The project ships its own kernel, its own GPU driver (a from-scratch OpenGL and Vulkan stack written without Apple documentation), and an installer that resizes macOS and sets up the dual boot.
What works on M1 and M2
On the M1 and M2 families this is a real daily driver, not a tech demo. The Asahi GPU driver is conformant OpenGL on those chips and Vulkan is in good shape, which is enough for a desktop, a browser, and most non-AAA games through the Steam and FEX x86 emulation layer. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, the display, the trackpad, audio (including the speaker DSP work that Apple does in software, which Asahi had to redo), suspend, and USB-C all work on supported chips. Battery life is short of macOS but acceptable. The honest gaps even on M1/M2: Thunderbolt is limited to USB and DisplayPort, not full Thunderbolt peripherals, and the built-in microphone and some camera support lagged the rest of the platform.
What does not work: M3 and M4
The M3 and M4 are not usable Linux machines in 2026. Apple changed enough between generations that each new chip family is a separate reverse-engineering effort, and the bring-up for M3 and M4 is not at the daily-driver line. What you can find for the newest chips is early-stage boot work, not a usable desktop with working GPU, suspend and Wi-Fi.
That is exactly how our model pages read it. The MacBook Air 13 (M3) page grades Linux problematic and states M3 and M4 are still in development and not a usable daily driver as of 2026. The MacBook Air 13 (M4) page is blunter: M4 is the least developed target, only a basic Alpine boot is reported, so there is no usable Linux on that machine yet. The numeric Linux score reflects this: 3 out of 10 for the M3, 1 out of 10 for the M4.
This moves fast and it is community-funded reverse engineering, so the real action item is to check the live status before you buy, not to trust any single dated article including this one. The project posts progress on its site and blog. If a future post says M3 GPU and suspend are at the daily-driver line, believe that over this paragraph.
Touch ID: never
This one has no timeline because it is not a work-in-progress item. Touch ID does not work under Asahi and is not expected to. The fingerprint sensor is wired into Apple’s Secure Enclave and the authentication path is closed silicon with no documented interface. Both our MacBook Air pages mark fingerprint as broken for exactly this reason. Plan for a password or a hardware key. There is no Asahi release that fixes this.
The honest recommendation
Asahi on a supported chip is impressive engineering and a genuinely good laptop Linux experience, with the fan-quiet, long-idle behaviour the Apple hardware is known for. If you already own an M1 or M2 MacBook and want Linux on it, do it, and accept no Touch ID and a Thunderbolt caveat.
If you are buying new in 2026 specifically to run Linux, a current MacBook is the wrong tool. The shipping models are M3 and M4, and Linux on those is not ready. You would be paying Apple prices for a machine whose only supported OS is macOS until the reverse engineering catches up, on no committed schedule. For a new Linux laptop, an AMD machine runs the mainline kernel out of the box today. Buy the MacBook for macOS, or buy an older M1/M2 secondhand if Asahi is the actual goal.