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Comment by capableweb | Hacker News Reader

Can I install macOS Recovery without installing full macOS? If my memory serves my well, macOS Recovery is a part of full macOS, so to get it, you need a full install. If that's true, you still need a full macOS install in order to install Asahi Linux, in comparison to normal laptop/desktop computers which can have nothing on them, but still allow you to install Windows/Linux/macOS.

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Apple computers come with macOS pre-installed, so technically you don’t have to install anything. It’s not possible, as far as I know, to purchase a Mac without macOS already installed.

I’m planning on buying an M2 Air. That leaves my mid 2012 Air running Catalina (poorly).

I don’t want to continue running the old Catalina system.

Is there a way to install Linux on that bare metal? What’s the best approach - direct install, or use something like QEMU underneath?

Typing this from a MacBook Air 2013 running ArchLinux :)

You just flash the installer of your favorite distro (don't use ventoy) to a USB and install as usual.

Do you reformat / partition the drive?

If you want! I installed latest Ubuntu mate on an old imac for a kid and completely wiped out the partitions with snow leopard stuff.

I would say read the limitations first and don’t buy it as a Linux machine yet if that’s what you need right now. Wait another year or two for Linux to be ready and comfortable.

If you need to install Asahi, you should install it as per the instructions in a dual-boot setup, then delete the macOS partition and resize afterwards.

I need the M2 for business communications and software, e.g. my accounting system. I also want to stay compatible with the other family iOS systems. I might dual boot Asahi at some point.

What I’m most interested in is converting my 2012 Air to Linux for development purposes. The hardware is good! With 4GB, it’s really too small to run recent MacOS, and it will be unsupported soon, but it should be fine for i3/Linux.

From what I've understood, Apple Silicon Macs can't function at all with "nothing on them", the same flash memory is shared between the pre-boot environment and the OS and data. There's no separate firmware flash memory.

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