Using multitouch, with a flick of the wrist, I can be in full-screen macOS, Ubuntu, or Windows 11 with each VM “feeling” like it is running at bare-metal speed. I prefer to custom-install Windows to my preferences because what I’m concerned about is using Windows, not using a few Windows apps under macOS. For example, I configured four-finger swipes to switch workspaces (desktops) in Trackpad settings on the M1 MacBook. For me, however, the Parallels process is not ideal. Our full review includes the new features in the latest version - Parallels Desktop 18. The primary benefit of a Type 2 hypervisor is being able to run multiple OSs side-by-side. Parallels Desktop allows you to run multiple operating system, including Windows, Linux and more, on your Mac. It works great, but I am not a fan of dual booting in general. I am dual-booting the 2014 MBA because I wanted to experience GNOME 40 multitouch natively.

UTM - free but issues with GUI ( poor performance) and networking (only NAT, no bridging). Initial problems with audio in Linux have been fixed in v 17. So, the only viable option for Linux on M1 currently is a Type 2 hypervisor. Support from Apple would speed up the effort.

So, not an ideal solution for practical use, but promising. Drivers are needing to be reverse engineered. Parallels Tools for Linux requires X Window System version 1.151.20 and Linux Kernel version 2.6.295.1. I also have a 2014 MBA (8 GB / 500 GB) that I dual boot with Fedora 34 and GNOME 40.Īs I understand it, bare-metal installation of Linux on M1 Macs is still in development. I have an M1 MBA (16 GB / 500 GB) running Ubuntu and Debian GNOME desktops plus Windows 10 & 11 in Parallels.

Macos parallels linux