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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: January 10th, 2024

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  • For all the breathless enthusiasm from the author, I feel like he’s overselling a lot of the impacts:

    For Chief Technology Officers and IT procurement managers, the viability of Linux on Apple Silicon introduces a complex variable. Historically, engineering teams demanding Linux were relegated to Dell XPS or Lenovo ThinkPad units, which, while capable, often trail Apple in battery efficiency and thermal management. If the M3 becomes a first-class citizen in the Linux ecosystem, organizations may face increased pressure to support Apple hardware for backend engineers and DevOps professionals who require native Linux environments rather than virtualization.

    Corporate purchases typically purchase new products either direct from the manufacturer or from the authorized resale channel. The M3 was introduced over two years ago and the only products I see Apple still selling with the M3 architecture are the Mac Studio (M3 Ultra) and iPad Air (M3). So any IT manager looking to procure a MacBook for an employee would need to find new old stock still in resale channel inventory or purchase a second-hand device, all for something that the article admits is still in an alpha stage of usefulness.

    The progress the Asahi project is making on Apple Silicon is fantastic and important, but I think it will primarily benefit private individuals, not businesses. Perhaps in the future as the developers become more adept at reverse engineering hardware and if Apple makes fewer changes between generations then Linux could start supporting active Apple products, but it’s not there yet.

    With Apple putting M-series chips in iPads and Linux gaining support for those chips, I’ll be very curious to see if we start seeing more Linux tablet support for iPads.




  • From the article:

    Debian GNU/kFreeBSD used the Debian userland on top of the FreeBSD kernel, although sadly, due to lack of manpower the project ended in 2023. There was a similar effort using the kernel from the slightly older BSD, Debian GNU/NetBSD. Multiple others have been suggested, including ports to the kernels of OpenBSD, OpenSolaris, IBM’s OS/2 kernel and others.
















  • It might be possible to upgrade the system but you’ll probably need to find someone who knows these systems better. There used to be a cover on this panel where the buttons and speaker are; that might’ve given a make or model number, or maybe even had a sticker for the company that installed or monitored the system. This is the control panel but there might be a hub/brain somewhere else where all the wires lead, perhaps in a closet or utility room. You might find more information there.

    The system sounds like it’s functional; in most jurisdictions the sellers should have provided you with the information necessary to use the system, like alarm codes and contacts for a monitoring service (if any). If you get a code that might be all you need to use the system (you should change the previous owner’s code).

    It’s possible to use the alarm without a monitoring service, but I feel like they’re more useful with a service. If there is a monitoring service they would be able to have someone come check out the system and reset the codes for you, show you how to use the system. Is there a sign in front of your house with the name of an alarm company?

    This looks like a system old enough that it would probably need an actual telephone line for monitoring and uses wired sensors. Wired sensors are probably a good thing. The sensors don’t need batteries and aren’t vulnerable to jamming like wireless sensors. They’re more expensive to install, though, especially in a finished home. Since yours is already installed, that’s a boon. Most current systems are probably designed for wireless but I’m sure there there are ways to use the hardwired system with more modern systems and get features like remote access.