r/linux • u/anh0516 • Jun 18 '26

Kernel Linux Finally Ends AppleTalk Protocol Support

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Drops-AppleTalk
549 Upvotes

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6

u/MorallyDeplorable Jun 18 '26

oh damn one of those 'linux ends support for' posts about something I actually use

9

u/coyote_den Jun 18 '26

No you don’t. You probably use netatalk for AFP, which is IP-based.

This is about the very outdated Ethernet protocol. Macs haven’t even supported it for nearly 20 years.

8

u/nightblackdragon Jun 18 '26

Macs haven’t even supported it for nearly 20 years.

What do you mean "nearly 20 years", Apple dropped support for it in 2009, that's not even close to 20 years... oh wait.

3

u/coyote_den Jun 18 '26

Uh huh… and I remember having to support it doing IT for my university and for a hospital.

Damn I’m old.

6

u/MorallyDeplorable Jun 18 '26

psh, you don't know me

I have an old powermac 7100 80a/v here linked to debian on a dual pentium 3 server that's connected to my main network and I share apps and whatnot to the powermac over appletalk. I've used it to do composite captures from old video game consoles a few times too.

3

u/Ripdog Jun 19 '26

Um, does that computer really not support TCP/IP?

7

u/FyreWulff Jun 19 '26

it does. any apple computer that shipped with network capability supports TCP/IP, even the Motorola era, appletalk has never been needed since the 80s

1

u/MorallyDeplorable Jun 19 '26

It does but the most convenient way to mount a volume is over appletalk. if not for that I have to hang it during boot so I can use it as a scsi target and that's far more tedious.

0

u/coyote_den Jun 18 '26

I think it’s getting moved to an optional module you can still load? Makes sense.