Thread

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

422 points · 290 comments · ADevWithAnIdea

MoltenMonster · 1789511027 · focus · HN ↗
<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AsahiLinux/comments/1whecn1/comment/pa1spia/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/AsahiLinux/comments/1whecn1/comment...
> 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 · 1789514814 · focus · HN ↗
  > 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'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't have connections to people involved in Apple Silicon development (and I'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'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 · 1789519818 · 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://oftc.catirclogs.org/asahi-dev/2026-06-04#35383763" rel="nofollow">https://oftc.catirclogs.org/asahi-dev/2026-06-04#35383763
    politician · 1789521887 · focus · HN ↗
    Do you work for Apple?
    bigyabai · 1789522258 · focus · HN ↗
    Probably not. Clean room RE is serious business, projects like Dolphin have to carefully vet contributors to remain legal.
    15155 · 1789537961 · focus · HN ↗
    Everyone says this, and then exactly zero cases are cited in support of or against this creative legal theory known as "clean room RE."
    No statute defines "clean room RE" and there's basically no relevant litigation establishing case law.
    mitxela · 1789558840 · focus · HN ↗
    It's a defense. It's like having a moat around your castle. You don't need a moat to repel invaders since you also have a wall, and you might not get invaded anyway.
    There's no law saying you have to do clean room RE. It's legal for me to look at a decompiled driver and write my own driver from scratch. It's not legal for me to just copy the decompilation, and a clean room environment is solid proof that it wasn't copied, but it's not the only way to not copy it, since I could also just not copy it.
    15155 · 1789578419 · focus · HN ↗
    > It's a defense.
    Who has used it successfully in litigation?

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