Show HN: KaiT2en, Linux on T2 MacBook pros

Posted by B4uler5 on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @06:37AM
from the show-hn dept.

A few months ago I pre-ordered a Framework, my main reasoning was simple, even though its not the fastest, or best pound for pound laptop on the market, and isn't even the best utilisation of the CPU it holds due to issues with its thermals, it is still as close as you can get to a macbook pro with linux, and upgrading from a mbp 2019, I didn't want to let go of the beautify panel, aluminum body, haptic trackpad, or any of that noise.

I also don't particularly want to upgrade, or regularly buy new computers, I pretty much just use them for programming and lightweight stuff, with the occasional movie in bed, or for my kids to watch while on Holiday. So my thinking was get the framework 13 pro, and keep it for 10-15 years.

That was until I came across this project. KaiT2en is a collaborative effort from some incredibly smart kernel engineers to bring T2 Macbook pro support to not only a level where they are usable with linux, but to a level where they are enjoyable to use. To essentially close the gap between macos and linux on the hardware.

Currently the mainline is being tested with Fedora and Gnome, but there are existing effort to get other base distros working, for instance my choice nixos: https://github.com/LukeChannings/KaiT2en-NixOS.

The main repo is here: https://github.com/kaiT2en/KaiT2en-Fedora

On the website you can find a list of additional features they worked on to improve support, some have already been merged into the mainline t2 kernel, some are pending review, and some will never be due to the nature of the changes.

Highly recommend anyone that is looking to bring new life to an old mbp give this project a go.

Re:Show HN: KaiT2en, Linux on T2 MacBook pros by B4uler5 on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @06:46AM (#50452284)

I bought a macbook pro in 2020, and for the last 6 years, it has been a workhorse of a machine, it is dear to me in ways I'm ashamed to admit.

This year though its been feeling slow. Slow in ways that don't make sense for a 6 year old laptop and as you can probably guess downgrading helped a lot.

Tahou ruined the experience for me, and after trying and not loving the experience provided by the mainline T2 linux kernel, I decided to buy an upgrade.

I pre-ordered the Framework 13 pro with the intent of having it stick around as my main machine for at least the next decade. That was until yesterday when I came across this project.

Its a collaborative targeted effort to bring the experience of using a T2 mac with linux inline with macos (or what macos was before the OS tanked the performance with its fancy glass effect).

So...guess I don't need a new computer after all!

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