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Apple's MacBook Pro laptops have become increasingly unfriendly with Linux in recent years [...] But now with the latest Mac Mini systems employing Apple's T2 security chip, they too are likely to crush any Linux dreams.
At least until further notice, these new Apple systems sporting the T2 chip will not be able to boot Linux operating systems.
[...] By default, Microsoft Windows isn't even bootable on the new Apple systems until enabling support for Windows via the Boot Camp Assistant macOS software.
From Phoronix.
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Apple's T2 Security Chip Prevents Linux From Installing on New Macs
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Remember Darwin; building a better mousetrap merely results in smarter mice.
(Score: 3, Informative) by fyngyrz on Monday November 12 2018, @12:57PM (2 children)
I read that as "insufficient RAM" :) With an OSX machine that has sufficient RAM, I turn the swap off. It can provide quite a speed boost. You can also direct it to a RAM drive, which isn't quite as good as actually having code (and data, if we add in-OS data cache to this line of thinking) ready to go, but still far better than swapping to HD, even SSD.
Oracle is not the only fish in the OSX VM sea, nor the tastiest. For example, on this particular issue, OSX vmware has long supported USB 2.0, with USB 2.0 speeds proportional to the available CPU power applied, and OSX parallels supports USB 3, same conditions. I use both; they both work. OTOH, if you truly require native speeds, sure, get something else. There will always be exceptions.
This varies with the particular VM and graphics hardware combination as well. But getting right down to it, if GPU performance is what you're after, you don't want Mac hardware at all, nothing to do with direct bootability. Apple's long been the trailer in the fast GPU wars, even in their top of the line machines where you can swap GPU cards around, and unless they do something very differently in the future, I expect they'll remain dependably well behind. Adding a VM will just compound the problem.
Having said that, most people will do fine with a lot less GPU than they think they need, gamers and really heavy CAD users excepted.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Pino P on Monday November 12 2018, @02:03PM
By that definition, there's a sentiment across certain forums that affordable Macs ship with insufficient RAM. One of the costs that T2 imposes on many is the price of Apple's RAM upgrade.
In other words, another of the costs that T2 imposes on many is the price of a license of proprietary VM software.
Say an application developer is using a Mac to test an application that he or she plans to make available for macOS and Linux. In a case like this, performance on par with a low-end PC is fine, so long as what is fast in the VM is also fast on metal, and what is slow in the VM is also slow on metal. But I haven't seen evidence that a VM offers even this.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday November 12 2018, @03:05PM
In my experience, there is no such thing as sufficient RAM. Mine may be mostly empty (okay, full up of cached files) five nines worth of the time but I've yet to find a box I didn't hit swap on eventually. Even with vm.swappiness set to 1.
Pro-tip: it's a damned fine condition to alert yourself on if you want to be able to deal with things before they manage to get completely out of hand. Having a swap file/partition as nothing but a time buffer for you to be able to investigate and fix the problem is quite valuable.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.