Fedora Asahi Remix 41 provides a better gaming experience on Apple Silicon Macs.

Fedora Asahi Remix is the best Linux distribution for Apple Silicon-based Mac computers. Developed in collaboration with the Fedora and Asahi Linux teams, it has improved with the latest updates, but it is still not perfect.

Asahi Linux is a major project to introduce a desktop Linux to Mac computers with ARM-based Apple Silicon chips, involving extensive reverse engineering and driver builds. Fedora Asahi Remix became the flagship distribution in 2023, and subsequent updates have improved the experience. Fedora Asahi Remix 41 was released at the end of October for many PCs and servers, and the Asahi Linux version is now available.

Fedora Asahi Remix 41 includes all changes from other Fedora 41 versions, including the latest GNOME 47 and KDE Plasma 6.2 desktop environments, and an update to the DNF 5 package management tool. This version adds x86/x86-64 emulation, allowing more PC apps and games to run on Asahi Linux, similar to how Rosetta 2 works on macOS.

The Asahi team showcased progress in emulation at the beginning of the year, demonstrating that games such as Control, Fault Wall 4, The Witcher 3, Portal 2, and Hollow Night run with sufficient performance when combined with the Vulkan 1.4 driver and Wine compatibility layer. Asahi Linux is ahead of macOS because Apple does not support Vulkan natively.

This blog post states, "Fedora Asahi Remix provides KDE Plasma 6.2 as our flagship desktop experience, along with a customized Calamares-based initial setup wizard. A GNOME version is also available, featuring GNOME 47, which matches both desktop versions provided by Fedora Linux. Fedora Asahi Remix also offers a Fedora Server version suitable for server workloads and other types of headless deployments. Finally, it provides a minimal image for users who want to build their own experience from scratch."

Asahi Linux is indeed impressive, but it still falls short of the macOS experience on the same hardware. M1 Macs are well-supported, but M2 Macs lack some features (such as the microphone on the 2023 MacBook Pro), and support for M3 Macs is still in the early stages. There is no official compatibility with Apple's latest M4 model. If you only want to run Linux software on a Mac, a virtual machine might be a better choice. Alternatively, the necessary software may be recompiled for Mac and available via Homebrew.

Fedora Asahi Remix can be downloaded according to the instructions on the Asahi website.