As another very unfortunate setback for the Asahi Linux project moving forward after Hector Martin left the project as did Asahi Lina pausing work on open-source Apple driver development, Alyssa Rosenzweig announced today that she is stepping away from the project following the successes in bringing up Apple M1 and M2 graphics drivers for Linux.
With the Apple graphics driver support with the Mesa OpenGL/Gallium3D and Vulkan drivers in good shape for Apple M1/M2 SoCs, conformance against these latest Khronos Group APIs achieved, and even allowing Proton gaming for running popular Windows games on Apple Silicon under Linux, Rosenzweig is now stepping away from the project.
Rosenzweig announced this evening:
“We’ve succeeded beyond my dreams. The challenges I chased, I have tackled. The drivers are fully upstream in Mesa. Performance isn’t too bad. With the Vulkan on Apple myth busted, conformant Vulkan is now coming to macOS via LunarG’s KosmicKrisp project building on my work.
Satisfied, I am now stepping away from the Apple ecosystem. My friends in the Asahi Linux orbit will carry the torch from here. As for me?
Onto the next challenge!”
That “next challenge” links to Intel’s Xe HPG architecture page.
While there are other developers continuing work with Asahi Linux, no one else was as uniquely positioned as Alyssa Rosenzweig for working on the Mesa driver code. It’s unfortunate to see Rosenzweig stepping away now and following Hector Martin and Asahi Lina stepping away from the project. With the ongoing challenges in bringing up Apple M3 and M4 SoC support is also frustrating for users hoping for a pleasant Apple Silicon on Linux experience with several of the top developers and reverse engineer experts departing.
