The Linux kernel can run on a variety of devices made by Apple, including devices where the unlocking of the bootloader is not possible with an official procedure, such as iPhones and iPads.

In June 2022, software developers Konrad Dybcio and Markuss Broks managed to run Linux kernel 5.18 on a iPad Air 2. The project made use of the Alpine Linux based Linux distribution called postmarketOS, which is primarily developed for Android devices. The developer suggested that they used the checkm8 exploit which was published back in 2019.

In 2008, the 2.6 Linux kernel was ported to the iPhone 3G, the iPhone (1st generation), and the iPod Touch (1st generation) using OpeniBoot.

Corellium's Project Sandcastle made it possible to run Android on an iPhone 7/7+ or an iPod Touch (7th generation) using the checkm8 exploit.

iPodLinux is a Linux distribution created specifically to run on Apple's iPod.

There is an experimental port of the mainline Linux kernel to iPod Nano 5G by freemyipod/q3k.

Linux can be dual-booted on Macs that use Motorola 680x0 processors (only 68020 and higher, and only non-"EC" processor variants since an MMU is required). The Linux/mac68k community project provides resources to do so, and an m68k community port of the Debian Linux distribution is also available.

In 1996, Apple announced that they were supporting a Linux port to the PowerMacs.