Honestly Arm and Risc-V are under rated. Not all are libre compatible but there are a few that work well with exclusively free software and have much less power draw.
All even half-way relevant architectures but x86 and z/Architecture are RISC nowadays: ARM, Power, MIPS (The Chinese tried to revitalise it but they seem to be switching to RISC-V), Atmel AVR. Oh speaking of microcontrollers: Z80 (CISC) still lives though arguably it’s genetically an x86. And then of course RISC-V which most of all is an open standard, and a clean slate. Also, the first vector insn set that also runs on hardware that isn’t a supercomputer.
If you want to talk about underrated look into POWER CPUs.
Motherboards like the tallos 2 are completely open source( except for an nvme storage controller) and they already offer x86_64 levels of performance. The only con right now is software support and the cost.
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?
Honestly Arm and Risc-V are under rated. Not all are libre compatible but there are a few that work well with exclusively free software and have much less power draw.
Risc architecture is gonna change everything
Hasn’t that been said for like 30 years?
never said when it’s gonna change everything
Right, the year of the Linux desktop will be on RISC V!
All even half-way relevant architectures but x86 and z/Architecture are RISC nowadays: ARM, Power, MIPS (The Chinese tried to revitalise it but they seem to be switching to RISC-V), Atmel AVR. Oh speaking of microcontrollers: Z80 (CISC) still lives though arguably it’s genetically an x86. And then of course RISC-V which most of all is an open standard, and a clean slate. Also, the first vector insn set that also runs on hardware that isn’t a supercomputer.
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Arm is RISC
I’m pretty sure they meant the open source RISC-V, not any reduced instruction set ISA in general.
Come on man, let them impress us with their technical knowledge and pedantry.
Pretty sure it’s just a reference to Hackers.
So is POWER. Or basically anything not x86 lol.
6502 isn’t.
We’re being extra pedantic now? Good, I like it.
RISC is good.
You mean RISC v? Arm is also risc
If you want to talk about underrated look into POWER CPUs.
Motherboards like the tallos 2 are completely open source( except for an nvme storage controller) and they already offer x86_64 levels of performance. The only con right now is software support and the cost.
And several grand for the just the CPU
There’s like 2 arm laptops out there and like 0 risc-v though, that’s why they’re underrated lol
There are bunch of single board computers and motherboards. If your interested that’s the way to go.
Keep in mind you will be likely limited to software in the Debian repo.
This is because it is still very new and adoption takes time.
There’s quite a number of ARM laptops, even ignoring Apple.
I’m waiting for a good one to come out at reasonable price to finally upgrade
Really hoping that Snapdragon X Elite ARM chip becomes wildly available and compatible with 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?