Apple’s computers switched from Intel X86 to ARM in 2020 when the company nnounced the M1 in November 2020. Since that time they have continued to release more ARM processors and now they have the M4 and M4 plus. ARM which stands for Advanced RISC machine. ARM is a CPU that uses a reduced instruction set and does not require a separate GPU. All the processing occurs on one chip. ARM processors are designed to be cost effective, consume less power and generate less heat than their X86 counterparts.
Not only does the ARM processor consume less power and cost less but it also has the processing power to effectively power large language models on individual personal computers and AI image generating software very quickly and robustly. Since Apple introduced the ARM processors in their computers there has been a drive to bring ARM to Linux. The Asahi Linux project aims to bring the power of Linux to Apple Silicon Macs. Pinebook Pro has brought Linux to an ARM processor powered notebook computer. Their machine is meant to deliver a solid day-to-day Linux experience.
Manjaro comes preinstalled on Pinebook Pro which can also run Debian, Arch, Armbian, BSD, Gentoo, Fedora, OpenSuse and Q4OS. Despite the progress there is still a shortage of ARM equipped computers for Linux folks to use. System76 recently announced a server line which will be powered by ARM chips. For now Linux users will have to satisfy themselves with the Pinebook Pro and Raspberry Pi 5 which are both wonderful examples of ARM computers.
Microsoft’s Surface Pro is another great example of an ARM powered mobile computer but to date I have not read of anyone installing Linux on it.