Apple may not have officially said it hates Linux, but the latest macOS 27 Golden Gate beta is sending a pretty clear message to anyone running Asahi Linux on Apple Silicon hardware.
In a warning posted to Mastodon, the Asahi Linux project told users not to upgrade to the macOS 27 beta because Apple changed how the boot picker and Startup Disk applications detect operating systems. The result is alarming: Asahi Linux installations suddenly disappear from view after installing the beta.
Thankfully, the Linux partitions are apparently still intact. Users are not losing their files or wiping their systems. But if you reboot into macOS 27 and your Linux installation vanishes from the boot menu, that is still a terrifying experience.
According to the Asahi developers, the issue appears tied to changes Apple made to the recovery environment used by the Apple Silicon boot picker. On these Macs, the boot interface is not some isolated firmware utility like on a traditional PC. Instead, it depends on the recovery tools associated with the default macOS installation. Once macOS 27 becomes the primary environment, Asahi partitions stop appearing.
The workaround is not exactly user friendly either. If users kept a secondary installation of macOS 26 or older, they can switch the default startup disk back and restore visibility to their Linux installation. But users who upgraded blindly without contingency plans could find themselves in a stressful recovery situation.
The Asahi team also temporarily blocked its installer from running on macOS 27 entirely until the project better understands what changed.
To be fair, this could absolutely be an unintended bug. The Asahi developers themselves say they believe Apple broke this accidentally and have already filed a bug report with the company. But from the perspective of Linux users, intent almost does not matter. The end result is the same: Apple changed something in its tightly controlled boot ecosystem and Linux users got burned.
This is one of the major downsides of Apple Silicon compared to traditional PCs. Apple fully controls the boot chain, firmware behavior, recovery environment, and hardware interfaces. Linux distributions like Asahi only exist because talented developers continuously reverse engineer Apple’s platform and adapt to whatever changes the company introduces.
And that creates an uncomfortable reality. Linux on Apple hardware will always exist at Apple’s mercy.
The timing also feels awkward. Apple spent years marketing Macs as powerful tools for developers, engineers, and technical users. Meanwhile, projects like Asahi Linux have helped make Apple Silicon hardware even more attractive to open source enthusiasts who want excellent battery life and impressive ARM performance without relying entirely on macOS.
Now, one beta update has effectively hidden Linux installations from the boot menu.
Even if Apple fixes this quickly, the incident serves as another reminder that Apple Silicon Macs are not open computers in the traditional sense. Users are allowed to run alternative operating systems only as long as Apple’s software stack continues to cooperate.
If you are an Asahi Linux user, the safest move right now is simple: stay far away from the macOS 27 Golden Gate beta unless you have a fallback installation ready.
And if you are thinking about switching from Windows to Linux on Apple hardware, this situation shows exactly why many Linux users still prefer more open platforms.
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