That was useful description of the issue. I'm running a Intel AX200 (pop!os) and it seems to be working well.
"Intel wireless cards are among the best for Linux, with support for new devices landing even before they are released. however, they have one big drawback: LAR (Location-Aware Regulatory).
basically the card detects in which country it is (and therefore the regulatory domain) based on nearby access points' ones, and doesn't let you change it manually.
the sad thing is that it often sets the card to the wrong country, which is a problem.
prior to Linux 5.5 there was an option to disable this annoying feature in the iwlwifi module (lar_disable=1), but it was removed as later firmware versions caused card crashes and Intel claimed the option shouldn't be accessible anyway
"
This is utterly absurd for an AP. It effectively implements a very poor consensus algorithm by which the nearby APs coordinate to decide what country they’re in. Of course, in the absence of any of the APs having any authoritative idea, it won’t work very well.
What insane lengths are people prepared to go to to work around this issue, and still...
> since it does not disable LAR at all, it inherits the issue of requiring a 5GHz access point to be active and near the card in order to detect a 5GHz-able country.
Macs are not a replacement for a Linux desktop, laptop or a server. They do not provide the same options nor allow you do the same things. There is some overlap, but same as you wouldn't use a Linux desktop to run the Adobe suite, Macs are poorly suited for servers, development, power users, etc.
- outside of the Apple ecosystem of course, because it's literally the only choice. For anything else, any recent Linux distro provides better tools and better UX, so why bother with Apple's ecosystem, lack of package manager that doesn't suck, compatibility issues left and right (can you run a VM on M Macs now? Kind of, sometimes, depends on how much you pay to whom; containers are still a pain), an undebuggable and uncustomisable OS, etc. etc.
Nope, you're not misunderstanding me. Lots of people are using Macs to develop, same as Windows. That doesn't make it a good platform for modern development outside of their respective platform's niches.
Regardless of whether you think Mac's are good for Linux development the maxim just because lots of people choose a poor option doesn't make it suddenly a good option still rings true.
My M1 mac Mini had constant wifi headaches, effectively the wifi did not work since disconnecting every few seconds wrecks your Zoom experience. Both Location Services and a thing called AWDL would just come in and destroy your wifi link over and over again. It took Apple over 2 years to ship a fix.
I did this in undergrad when the Wifi in my dorm room was abysmal. I used an old Mac mini and hardwired it with the in-room Ethernet and then used the Wifi hotspot mode to make a nice fast wireless network for my roommate and I.
The Mac also pulled double duty as an AirPlay receiver and Plex server. Pretty handy.
