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For a successful port: the hardware must attract the interest of a team of developers, so this hardware platform... (1) must be available globally. (2) must b
by segfaultbuserr 7y ago
For a successful port: the hardware must attract the interest of a team of developers, so this hardware platform...
(1) must be available globally.
(2) must be valued by developers as worthwhile, i.e. for a specific propose.
(3) must be relatively easy to reverse engineer, e.g. platform is not too new.
Thinkpad laptops are already popular among developers and hackers, and used machines and motherboards can be obtained cheaply for a low price, each generation often uses a pretty standard design, only with a newer chipset. As a result, it became the "reference machine" for a lot of developers, including developers working on security and privacy projects. The server motherboard is a thing because there are hardware hackers who are interested in FOSS-friendly and secure server platforms.
On the other hand, there are huge numbers of consumer desktop motherboards with a lot of variations, every single one needs to be reverse-engineered independently. We don't see a platform to gain the critical mass yet.