Apple M4/Linux compatibility and ecosystem lock-in related usage pain points
Problem
In the Linux on M4 blog post and Hacker News comments, users widely report that Apple Silicon Linux support requires extensive reverse engineering. Meanwhile, ecosystem lock-in via proprietary protocols limits third-party peripheral functionality, resulting in high entry barriers for developers and users constrained within the macOS and official accessory ecosystem.
Pain points
- Linux on M4 hardware states (e.g., power management, CPU sleep) lack official support, requiring extensive reverse engineering to run.
- macOS touch protocols are proprietary and closed-source, forcing third-party trackpads to emulate mouse devices with limited functionality, preventing full gesture support.
- The Apple ecosystem creates a natural moat with few open hardware alternatives, locking users into macOS and official accessories.
Questions to verify
- Would you be willing to try third-party solutions to replace the Apple ecosystem for more open hardware support?
- Are you following the progress of open-source projects like Asahi on M4, and would you like to continue monitoring?
- Would you intend to participate in or pay for reverse-engineering proprietary touchpad protocols to improve third-party peripheral compatibility?
Evidence
quote · @匿名
Imagine how big Apple would/could be if they embraced open hardware. They do have a moat here. macOS is so bloated, I hate it, but the hardware is just so much better than anything else.
quote · @匿名
These bring-up debugging writeups read like detective novels. Impressive how much gets reverse engineered from a handful of weird symptoms.
quote · @匿名
Not related to this but the other day I was searching for a good external trackpad that would work with macOS and there are very few (and not good) and every discussion was about how nothing comes close to Apple magic trackpad. The question is why can't other companies create such a good trackpad for macOS, it turns out they can't because the whole protocol for touchpad/gestures etc are proprietary and closed on macOS side so essentially any 3rd party trackpad has to emulate a mouse device. Thats what you get when a company makes computer and its OS and also its accessories and also software services, the whole stack, you either use their whole thing or not.
Disclaimer: this card is distilled by AI from community discussions as “pain point evidence”. It is a starting point for need analysis and validation, not a “validated market need”. AI has analytical limits; please open the original discussion above to manually verify before key decisions.