I don't understand what you're asking. A mac is hardware, linux is software. There are no "equivalents" between the two.
Why do you mention virtualization? A VM is by no means the only way to run linux on macs, on x86 machines it should install just fine, and Asahi has come a long way towards fully working on ARM.
If you're asking for apple-like hardware that can run linux, just go with apple hardware.
Or are you asking for laptops that come with linux? I don't get what you're actually after here.
Yeah, thats fine if Asahi totally substitutes or can substitute for MacOS. I need a lot of work on this topic because I've never ventured outside like CrossOver or whatever the thing that lets you run Windows on Mac. Is Asahi like that but on steroids basically?
No. CrossOver only runs windows programs inside OSx, not windows itself. It's basically "just" Wine. BootCamp would be an actual dual-boot utility which made actually installing Windows onto x86 macs a bit easier. As far as I know, there's been no great success with installing Windows on M series macs. But it works just fine on x86 based apple computers.
Asahi is the linux project which is doing work to implement support for all the mac-specific hardware features that apple arm silicon has. Such as the GPU, fingerprint sensor, touch pad, etc.
Linux already works on arm in general, it's the core of android, after all. But apple keeps the way all their stuff works together for themselves. So using apple hardware, especially the new M series SOCs, with something other than their intended operating system, has to be figured out from scratch. That's what Asahi is doing, and they are very far along now.
I'm not sure you understand how operating systems work. They are not part of the hardware, they are only software, as long you have something else that also works on that hardware, you can completely delete what came with it, and put in whatever else you want. With x86 macs you can literally turn them into windows computers, it's not windows running inside OSx, just windows.
Ah k, this was my understanding of running an alternative OS. Like I thought no matter what you run, Apple was still keeping supervisory control regardless. But I was thinking of this more in-line with what Cross-Over/bootcamp/wine etc do roughly speaking.
You can run another operating system inside OSx, but that's a virtual machine, an entire virtual computer which you then install the other OS on.
You can also just install an OS an the actual computer. There is no way to make doing this completely impossible, and with professional hardware used by actual software professionals, trying to would be utterly unacceptable. Apple would lose an entire type of customer.
Even with game consoles, people like to circumvent the blocks around doing this and run whatever they want, for fun.
I think I was thinking more like how Apple doesnt want Hackintoshes (Mac running on PC?) as opposed to this up-to-date characterization you are running off of
You lost me again. Hackintoshes exist, and the only way apple has to stop them is the legal code around software licensing.
How is that relevant?
Apple can legally stop you from running OSx without a license, because you don't have a license, but they cannot stop you from running whatever you want on your hardware.
Apple can't attach a license to hardware, limiting what you are allowed to do with it. That would be stupid.