I’ve always treated mobile devices differently than desktops and laptops. Part of this is because mobile devices tend to be restrictive. Most mobile devices are closed platforms that don’t allow you to load a different operation system. And while you can load custom firmware on a few mobile devices, it often requires some hackery. It appears as though I jumped ship at the proper time though because Apple is bringing the restrictive nature of iOS to its desktops and laptops:
Apple’s MacBook Pro laptops have become increasingly unfriendly with Linux in recent years while their Mac Mini computers have generally continued working out okay with most Linux distributions due to not having to worry about multiple GPUs, keyboards/touchpads, and other Apple hardware that often proves problematic with the Linux kernel. But now with the latest Mac Mini systems employing Apple’s T2 security chip, they took are likely to crush any Linux dreams.
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Update 2: It looks like even if disabling the Secure Boot functionality, the T2 chip is reportedly still blocking operating systems aside from macOS and Windows 10.
I know a lot of people have expressed the feeling that buying an Apple computer and installing Linux on it is rather foolish. After all, you can buy a computer for far less that is fully supported by Linux (Linux support on Apple computers has always been a bit hit or miss). I mostly agree with that attitude. However, there comes a time in every Mac’s life where Apple drops support for it in macOS. While it’s possible to coax macOS onto a lot of unsupported Macs, there are also quite a few older Macs where installing a modern version of macOS is impossible. In such cases Linux offers an option to continue using the hardware with an operating system that has current security updates.
I prefer to repurpose old computers rather than throw them away. Having the option to install Linux on older Macs has always been a desirable option to me. For me losing that ability severely limits the functional lifetime of a Mac. Moreover, I worry that the limitations put into place by the T2 chip will make installing future versions of macOS on these machines impossible when they fall out of support.
Secure Boot functionality is a good security measure. However, Secure Boot on a vast majority of PCs can be disabled (in fact Microsoft requires that Secure Boot can be disabled for logo-certificate). Even if you don’t disable it, many Linux distributions have signed bootloaders that work with Secure Boot (unfortunately, even these signed bootloaders don’t work on Apple computers with a T2 chip). So it is possible to provide boot-time security while supporting third-party operating systems. Apple is simply choosing not to do so.