Apple blocking Linux installs on newest Macs with T2 chip

[asus killer]

Spending that much on a overpriced mac and installing linux makes no sense. Then just buy a pc.

[Syntaxvgm]

1 hour ago, asus killer said:

Spending that much on a overpriced mac and installing linux makes no sense. Then just buy a pc.

I use a mac with windows at work. I didn't choose to buy the mac. I already had a good desktop that worked much better for me. 

They decided to waste like 2500$ on getting me "the best" 

 

Plus linux shouldn't be blocked on anything (not that it really is in this case). That's kinda the point of the foss for the consumer movement. 

[ZacoAttaco]

Is Linux really seen as a security risk though? I feel like the user paid for the product and they should get to do what they want with it.

[Master Disaster]

Just now, ZacoAttaco said:

Is Linux really seen as a security risk though? I feel like the user paid for the product and they should get to do what they want with it.

Linux is no more a security risk then any other operating system. What it is is a risk to Apples bottom line and nothing can stand between Apple and making money.

[ZacoAttaco]

5 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

Plus linux shouldn't be blocked on anything (not that it really is in this case). That's kinda the point of the foss for the consumer movement. 

How did you get around it then? Disable the T2 chip or did I miss something else?

Just now, Master Disaster said:

Linux is no more a security risk then any other operating system. What it is is a risk to Apples bottom line and nothing can stand between Apple and making money.

I guess they don't make money through their MacOS Store? Perhaps iCloud and iTunes, yeah I see your point. By running Linux on Mac you're ignoring Apple's big selling point, their ecosystem, and all the money you spend within it. Nice point.

[Master Disaster]

Just now, ZacoAttaco said:

I guess they don't make money through their MacOS Store? Perhaps iCloud and iTunes, yeah I see your point. By running Linux on Mac you're ignoring Apple's big selling point, their ecosystem, and all the money you spend within it. Nice point.

And Linux allows users to keep outdated and unsupported hardware running long after its support period is up. Those people should be buying new Mac's, not running Linux.

[asus killer]

10 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

I use a mac with windows at work. I didn't choose to buy the mac. I already had a good desktop that worked much better for me. 

They decided to waste like 2500$ on getting me "the best" 

 

Plus linux shouldn't be blocked on anything (not that it really is in this case). That's kinda the point of the foss for the consumer movement. 

your case is special. My i stand for what i wrote.

 

I do agree it's stupid to block it, even more as a security risk being that it's probably the safer OS of them all. 

[ZacoAttaco]

Just now, Master Disaster said:

And Linux allows users to keep outdated and unsupported hardware running long after its support period is up. Those people should be buying new Mac's, not running Linux. 

I find that interesting, that wouldn't be an issue personally, I try and get as much use out of products as I can, so I'm not opposed to running older software but I'm sure many others need to have constant updates or support. I mean you can see why Apple wouldn't want to encourage this, it's funny they call it a 'security risk' though.

 

I can't help but wonder, wouldn't running Windows also allow users to potentially get more out of their devices? They'd also lose out on potential income their too so what incentive to Apple have to allow Windows installs?

4 minutes ago, asus killer said:

I do agree it's stupid to block it, even more as a security risk being that it's probably the safer OS of them all. 

That's exactly what I was thinking, Windows is arguably the most insecure but they're still 'allowing' it to be installed.

[Syntaxvgm]

14 minutes ago, ZacoAttaco said:

How did you get around it then? Disable the T2 chip or did I miss something else?

Mine is the mac right before the t2 chip so I can't test it, but as far as I can tell you just go the the boot security settings and disable the security. 
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208198

 

[williamcll]

If you are willing to pay this much for a laptop to install linux on just get a surface laptop instead.

[AlTech]

8 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

Well Secure boot only allows macOS and Windows to boot on the machine, anything else is considered a security risk. 

 

You can disable the T2 chip in all Macs that have it if you really need Linux on a MacBook for some reason and a VM won't do. 

I've tried Linux VMs and they simply won't do because the godawful performance due to lack of GPU acceleration. Also virtualizing everything even on an 8 core Ryzen 7 isn't great  .

 

At some point I just decided to put Linux full time on my T480. If i want to do linux stuff on my desktop then I can dual-boot.

[AlTech]

8 hours ago, Drak3 said:

If you're buying ANY Mac device to install another OS to, you need to reevaluate your life decisions.

*FUNNY* + *AGREE*

[Jito463]

3 hours ago, captain_to_fire said:

I don't really see this as a problem when it can be disabled.

3 hours ago, Syntaxvgm said:

Can't you disable the secure boot? lol 

Gee, I wish I had thought to address that in an earlier post (or even directly in the OP).......

8 hours ago, Jito463 said:

Normally, that wouldn't be much of an issue as one can typically disable Secure Boot via a utility, but apparently that no longer works.

8 hours ago, Jito463 said:

According to this link, one should be able to use the Startup Security Utility to disable SB, but according to the article people were reporting that it doesn't work.

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/463422/2018-macbook-pro-tb-1tb-ssd

 

[Ashleyyyy]

3 hours ago, asus killer said:

Spending that much on a overpriced mac and installing linux makes no sense. Then just buy a pc.

what if you want to have apple exclusive apps like final cut and also want/need to use Linux for some reason? 

 

since Apple products are very expensive it's possible that people in that scenario don't have money left over for another system to run Linux. dual-booting is a good option in that case. 

[GoodBytes]

Ok, but in the end, OSX is Unix base... so not a big deal in reality.

[Jito463]

3 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Ok, but in the end, OSX is Unix base... so not a big deal in reality.

I'm confused by your post, what exactly isn't a big deal? 

[Drak3]

44 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

what if you want to have apple exclusive apps like final cut and also want/need to use Linux for some reason? 

Virtualize Linux.

[Ashleyyyy]

8 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Virtualize Linux.

what if you needed something a VM couldn't do? 

[Drak3]

14 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

what if you needed something a VM couldn't do? 

Like what?

[Jito463]

1 minute ago, Drak3 said:

Like what?

One example (that was brought up earlier) would be hardware GPU acceleration.

[Ashleyyyy]

2 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Like what?

 

Just now, Jito463 said:

One example (that was brought up earlier) would be hardware GPU acceleration.

exactly. 

 

or hot plug usb.

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, Drak3 said:

Like what?

I sometimes find issues with some specific USB-devices not working properly/at all when passed through to a VM. Granted, this is under Windows/Linux, not OSX, and using VMware, but I would imagine a similar issue could crop up there, too.

[Drak3]

7 minutes ago, Jito463 said:

One example (that was brought up earlier) would be hardware GPU acceleration.

Parallels allows that.

 

6 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

 

exactly. 

 

or hot plug usb.

Parallels allows that.

 

6 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

I sometimes find issues with some specific USB-devices not working properly/at all when passed through to a VM. Granted, this is under Windows/Linux, not OSX, and using VMware, but I would imagine a similar issue could crop up there, too.

My testing of Parallels was that when you're running the VM full screen, it's almost identical to running it on the metal on a mac.

[Ashleyyyy]

3 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Parallels allows that.

it does? can you game using it?

 

4 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Parallels allows that.

interesting

 

4 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

My testing of Parallels was that when you're running the VM full screen, it's almost identical to running it on the metal on a mac.

did you run benchmarks to confirm that? like is cpu and gpu performance the same?

[WereCatf]

13 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

My testing of Parallels was that when you're running the VM full screen, it's almost identical to running it on the metal on a mac.

That's not a rebuttal of what I said. I mean, the same thing applies VMware, and yet, the issue I mentioned does exist. In most/nearly all cases, yes, USB-passthrough does work fine, but there are cases where it doesn't. When the passthrough works, yes, "it's almost identical to running it on the metal", to quote you.

 

One such case is e.g. devices that change their USBID several times during reconfiguration: the passthrough introduces just enough delay that the flashing-application's timing goes off, doesn't catch all these changes and then doesn't work, and you either have to dig into the app and try to modify it to get the timing right, or you have to drop out of VM and do it on real HW.