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This is amazing work. But what’s the motivation? I understand in 90s Linux was a niche and we had to write our own drivers. But today Linux runs on 2B devices -
by miohtama 5y ago
This is amazing work. But what’s the motivation? I understand in 90s Linux was a niche and we had to write our own drivers. But today Linux runs on 2B devices - shouldn’t hw vendors to write their own drivers today? Why try to even support open source for non-co-operative hw companies - just stick with “good” hw companies?
- zozbot234 5y agoBy and large, HW vendors are writing hacked-together, barely-functional drivers that only work on a heavily patched "downstream" fork of a single version of the kernel code. This is for proper support that can actually be merged in the mainline kernel and maintained for the foreseeable future.
- miohtama 5y agoWhy would anyone pay for it?
- zozbot234 5y agoBecause it gets rid of an especially nasty sort of technical debt. It makes that piece of hardware useful with reliable, up-to-date versions of the kernel.
- wmf 5y agoI imagine Collabora has embedded Linux customers who prefer to use an upstream kernel rather than some kind of Android blob kludge.
- solarkraft 5y agoThere's enough of a business demand for it. What surprises me is that this leads to (presumably) smaller customers paying Collabora to do it instead of the SoC manufacturer just providing a usable driver.
- sobkas 5y ago> Why would anyone pay for it? Because doing it properly is too expensive for average customer? Also, in capitalism you only need to outrun your competitors, not achieve some kind of perfect driver. So when your competitors are as &'££&-- as you, wasting time on a perfect driver is a waste of time.