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Building a Linux GPU Driver for the M4 Mac Mini in One Month

422 points · 290 comments · ADevWithAnIdea

  1. MoltenMonster · · focus · HN ↗
    <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;AsahiLinux&#x2F;comments&#x2F;1whecn1&#x2F;comment&#x2F;pa1spia&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;AsahiLinux&#x2F;comments&#x2F;1whecn1&#x2F;comment...

    &gt; The author was banned from Asahi Linux for hiding his extensive use of LLMs from us in another attempted contribution, and (more importantly) for concealing that he is a former Apple engineer with direct contacts to the people involved in Apple Silicon development. Make of this what you will.

    1. ADevWithAnIdea · · focus · HN ↗
      &gt; concealing that he is a former Apple engineer with direct contacts to the people involved in Apple Silicon development

      This is false. I am a former Apple engineer. I did not conceal it (it&#x27;s the top item of my resume and my LinkedIn and I made my PR from my public Github with my name attached, as opposed to a pseudonym which is expressly allowed by Asahi policy). I also had no exposure, at all, to any internal information or code about macOS, SPTM, or Apple Silicon during my time there.

      I also don&#x27;t have connections to people involved in Apple Silicon development (and I&#x27;d add that this does not mean someone cannot contribute, the question is were they exposed to tainted information, which is absolutely not true in my case). I have many friends who work for Apple (I&#x27;m a Stanford alum) but none in Apple Silicon directly.

      I disagree with the phrasing of this entire thing, but this statement is demonstrably false.

      1. thrwy19940314 · · focus · HN ↗
        At least according to your own accounts on the Asahi IRC rooms, you were very aware of SPTM (which is part of the AS platform) and knew the people working on it: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;oftc.catirclogs.org&#x2F;asahi-dev&#x2F;2026-06-04#35383763" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;oftc.catirclogs.org&#x2F;asahi-dev&#x2F;2026-06-04#35383763
        1. viraptor · · focus · HN ↗
          Spend enough time in tech and you&#x27;ll know lots of people who know both technical and business secrets and are under various levels of NDAs. The message you link to explicitly mentions only public info was exchanged. Just talking to someone is not an indication of infringement in any way.
          1. Eufrat · · focus · HN ↗
            I think this comment is missing the forest for the trees. Obviously, ephemeral interaction is going to happen.

            The author’s blogpost is sloppy and has some signs of being AI written. This kind of bleeds into the main point I’m going to make.

            Asahi Linux folks are clearly more conservative and erring on the side of caution, so, this means that the glibness with which the author is treating any of this is probably sufficient cause to refuse his entries. It is unclear if LLMs should be considered a toxic waste dump in terms of trying to maintain a clean room. We have not established a standard. It is clear the author doesn’t think this is a big deal, so that’s one conflict. The other conflict is that it is not clear what their exact interactions with Apple Silicon folks is and their glibness of it doesn’t clarify anything.

            If you take a group that is trying to be very careful about the potential legal landmines a still nascent technology has and you get someone that espouses a general glibness about those concerns wanting to merge code…why on earth would you expect that group to accept them as a contributor?

            This is not to say this isn’t really cool and a neat use of LLMs, but it is totally understandable why Asahi Linux won’t accept the fruits of this kind of development. If it turns out that Apple can identify its non-OSS code in this, it’ll be a mess.

            1. noir_lord · · focus · HN ↗
              &gt; Asahi Linux folks are clearly more conservative and erring on the side of caution

              I mean they are working around and on hardware controlled by a nearly 5 trillion market cap behemoth who has resources on the level of some nation states.

              I&#x27;d be erring on the side of caution as well if they could hire that many lawyers.

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