Not only will ARM and Risc-V likely not save Linux it will most likely harm it. I doubt there will be many Linux computers running Arm and Risc-V and the few computers that use those architectures won’t run Linux well. M series Apple computers only run with reverse engineering and even then many basic features don’t work.
Most software doesn’t work on arm and despite many distros supporting arm there aren’t many arm computer manufacturers supporting Linux. There is a small possibility that Qualcomm could announce that their desktop CPUs support Linux but I’m not so sure.
Walk up to a random person and say “yeah recompile this software for a different architecture while having no support as the architecture is unsupported”
Yeah I could personally do that with minimal effort but keep in mind the vast majority of people aren’t willing to. Most new Linux users get scared when they see a terminal, how are we supposed to convince people to give up tons of basic hardware features and tell them recompile software when they can keep using a proprietary operating system?
The proprietary video drivers for ARM SoCs have definitely been a problem for years and we can’t rely on third party alternatives or first party support from linux popularity.
As far as software supporting arm, there are translation layers that can run x86 binaries on it and I am confident with more development and more powerful chipsets that won’t be much of an issue for most applications.
That’s the problem, right now arm development boards for Linux are limited which limits development of arm software on Linux which decreased the incentive to run Linux on an arm device. What computer manufacturer that uses arm processors that are comparable to standard Intel/AMD CPUs also supports Linux?
Not only will ARM and Risc-V likely not save Linux it will most likely harm it. I doubt there will be many Linux computers running Arm and Risc-V and the few computers that use those architectures won’t run Linux well. M series Apple computers only run with reverse engineering and even then many basic features don’t work.
Maybe I’m missing something, how will arm kill Linux? We already have good arm support.
Most software doesn’t work on arm and despite many distros supporting arm there aren’t many arm computer manufacturers supporting Linux. There is a small possibility that Qualcomm could announce that their desktop CPUs support Linux but I’m not so sure.
Most software can simply be compiled for arm.
Walk up to a random person and say “yeah recompile this software for a different architecture while having no support as the architecture is unsupported”
Unless your using gentoo that’s not a problem.
Yeah I could personally do that with minimal effort but keep in mind the vast majority of people aren’t willing to. Most new Linux users get scared when they see a terminal, how are we supposed to convince people to give up tons of basic hardware features and tell them recompile software when they can keep using a proprietary operating system?
Well for now that question is unanswered. We only have demo boards and small embedded systems right now.
I think the rise of proprietary systems has already happened and we can only get more free from here.
The proprietary video drivers for ARM SoCs have definitely been a problem for years and we can’t rely on third party alternatives or first party support from linux popularity.
As far as software supporting arm, there are translation layers that can run x86 binaries on it and I am confident with more development and more powerful chipsets that won’t be much of an issue for most applications.
That’s the problem, right now arm development boards for Linux are limited which limits development of arm software on Linux which decreased the incentive to run Linux on an arm device. What computer manufacturer that uses arm processors that are comparable to standard Intel/AMD CPUs also supports Linux?