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Can owners of M4 Macs run Linux yet? The short answer, following a large batch of System-on-Chip (SoC) patches merged for the Linux 7.4 kernel, is: closer than before — but not quite.
According to Phoronix, the merge window has brought initial support for dozens of new boards alongside several new chip families, most notably the Apple M4 and the Apple A18 Pro, which Phoronix reports for the upcoming "MacBook Neo." The Google Tensor 5 has also finally been mainlined, along with Pixel 10 devices, and the set is rounded out by support for some not-yet-released Qualcomm SoCs.
The keyword across all of this is initial. Patches landing in a merge window typically establish the groundwork — device trees, CPU and GPU clock tables, power domains, and the plumbing that lets the kernel recognise the hardware. Features users actually depend on for daily work, such as display output, robust power management, and hardware accelerators, have historically trailed the core enablement by several development cycles. For anyone hoping to install a distribution on an M4 machine today, this merge is a milestone on the road, not the destination.
That framing matters because past expectations have been disappointed. The Apple Silicon port matured unevenly across earlier generations, and the practical takeaway from Linux 7.4 is patience: watch how the support hardens over subsequent releases before treating any of this as production-ready.
Why the SoC wave matters more than any single chip
The more consequential story is structural. Rather than trickling in one board at a time across separate cycles, the merge consolidates a large number of boards and several chip families — Apple, Google, and Qualcomm among them — into a single window. For downstream maintainers and distribution packagers, that consolidation reduces patch fragmentation: fewer out-of-tree deltas to carry, fewer rebases, and a cleaner baseline for the long-term support kernels that enterprises actually deploy. It is the kind of unglamorous upstream hygiene that shortens the gap between hardware launch and usable Linux support.
The Qualcomm thread deserves particular note. Support for unreleased parts appearing upstream is a routine feature of the kernel's development workflow, not a disclosure incident — and it signals healthy vendor engagement. When silicon vendors submit enablement ahead of retail availability, the end result is a much shorter launch-to-Linux lead time for the phones and laptops built on those chips.
The Tensor 5 and Pixel 10 mainlining follows the same arc. Google's move to fully upstream its Tensor platform has been gradual across successive Pixel generations, and completing it for the current generation removes a persistent source of downstream divergence for custom-ROM and recovery-image developers.
What this means for Hong Kong's open-source community
In the HKLUG desk's view, the practical value for Hong Kong's open-source community is twofold: M4 and Tensor 5 hardware becomes a realistic target for kernel and driver work sooner, and the reduced fragmentation lowers the cost of maintaining kernels across diverse ARM64 devices. Neither development makes a new Mac or Pixel a daily-driver Linux box overnight — but both move the ecosystem meaningfully in that direction.
The full patch-set coverage is available via Phoronix.
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M4 Mac 用家現時能否運行 Linux？隨著一大批 System-on-Chip（SoC）補丁合併至 Linux 7.4 核心，簡短答案是：比以往更接近——但仍未完全做到。
據 Phoronix 報道，本次 merge window 為數十款新板卡帶來初步支援，並新增多個晶片系列，其中最矚目的是 Apple M4 及 Apple A18 Pro，Phoronix 指兩者將用於即將推出的「MacBook Neo」。Google Tensor 5 亦終於成功進入 mainline，並同時支援 Pixel 10 設備，此外亦包括部分尚未發布的 Qualcomm SoC 的支援。
貫穿這一切的關鍵詞是 initial（初步）。在 merge window 落地的補丁，通常只是打好基礎——包括 device tree、CPU 及 GPU clock 表、power domain，以及讓核心識別硬件的相關管線。用戶日常工作實際依賴的功能，例如顯示輸出、穩健的電源管理及硬件加速器，歷來都比核心啟用（core enablement）落後數個開發週期。對於今日希望在 M4 機器上安裝發行版的人而言，這次合併只是漫漫前路上的一個里程碑，而非終點。
這一定位十分重要，因為過往期望曾一再落空。Apple Silicon 移植在早前數代硬件上成熟程度不一，而 Linux 7.4 帶來的實際啟示是耐心：先觀察各項支援在後續版本中如何穩固下來，再考慮將其視為 production-ready。
為何 SoC 浪潮比任何單一晶片更值得關注
更具意義的發展是結構性的。今次 merge 並非逐代零散地一次加入一款板卡，而是將大量板卡及多個晶片系列——包括 Apple、Google 及 Qualcomm——整合到單一 merge window 之中。對於下游維護者及發行版打包者而言，這種整合減少了 patch 的碎片化：需要攜帶的 out-of-tree delta 更少、需要 rebase 的次數更少，也為企業實際部署的長期支援（LTS）核心提供更乾淨的基線。這種毫不花巧的 upstream 衛生工作，正是縮短硬件發布與可用 Linux 支援之間差距的關鍵。
Qualcomm 相關討論尤為值得留意。未發布部件的支援出現在 upstream，是核心開發流程中的常態，而非外泄事故——這反而顯示廠商參與程度健康。當晶片供應商在零售版面世前便提交 enablement，最終結果是基於這些晶片的手機及手提電腦，從發布到可用 Linux 的 lead time 大幅縮短。
Tensor 5 及 Pixel 10 進入 mainline 亦循相同軌跡。Google 將 Tensor 平台全面上游化的步伐，歷經數代 Pixel 逐步推進，如今為當代完成這一步，消除了自訂 ROM 及 recovery image 開發者長期面對的一項下游差異來源。
這對香港開源社群意味著甚麼
據 HKLUG 編輯部觀察，對香港開源社群而言，實際價值有兩方面：M4 及 Tensor 5 硬件會更早成為核心及驅動程式開發的現實目標，同時碎片化減少亦降低了維護各種 ARM64 設備核心的成本。這兩項進展並不會令新 Mac 或 Pixel 一夕之間變成 daily-driver Linux 主機——但兩者都實質地推動了整個生態系統朝這方向邁進。
完整的 patch-set 覆蓋範圍可於 Phoronix 查閱。