Last week Hector Martin resigned from upstream maintainership of the Apple Silicon code for the Linux kernel. At the time he was still going to contribute to the Asahi Linux project’s downstream kernel but in a surprise move today, he has decided to resign as project leader of Asahi Linux.
Hector Martin who started the Asahi Linux project announced today that he is resigning as its project lead. He commented on his blog that working on the project has become less fun over time and note user complaints around the lack of Apple M3/M4 support thus far and other missing features with Asahi Linux on Apple Silicon like Thunderbolt and USB-C monitors.
Due to frustrations around user expectations around Asahi Linux on Apple Silicon hardware and then paired more recently with the upstream frustrations/arguments/challenges around Rust code within the Linux kernel, and other factors, Hector Martin has decided to step down.
“I’m resigning as lead of the Asahi Linux project, effective immediately. The project will continue on without me, and I’m working with the rest of the team to handle transfer of responsibilities and administrative credentials. My personal Patreon will be paused, and those who supported me personally are encouraged to transfer their support to the Asahi Linux OpenCollective (GitHub Sponsors does not allow me to unilaterally pause payments, but my sponsors will be notified of this change so they can manually cancel their sponsorship).
I want to thank the entire Asahi Linux team, without whom I would’ve never gotten anywhere alone. You all know who you are. I also give my utmost gratitude to all of my Patreon and GitHub sponsors, who made the project a viable reality to begin with.”
The Asahi Linux blog has also confirmed Hector’s resignation while the remaining developers plan on to keep pushing Linux on Apple Silicon hardware. The current Asahi Linux members are listed as Alyssa Rosenzweig, chaos_princess, Davide Cavalca, Neal Gompa, James Calligeros, Janne Grunau, and Sven Peter. (There is no mention of Asahi Lina?)
The remaining developers note they will be focusing still on upstreaming to the Linux kernel. The Apple M3 and M4 hardware support isn’t expected until after more of their code is upstreamed and progress on continuous integration. For Apple M1/M2 hardware this year they hope to accomplish DP Alt Mode, sparse images within the Vulkan driver, and internal microphone support.
