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Right - however it’s not as easy as “release the code.” Those Linux versions used for bring-up are typically an unupstreamable mess. They are hardware engineers
by gjsman-1000 5y ago
Right - however it’s not as easy as “release the code.” Those Linux versions used for bring-up are typically an unupstreamable mess. They are hardware engineers, not software devs.
It’s kind of like Correlium’s M1 port over a year ago. It got Linux on the M1 within weeks of launch but the code was unusably atrocious.
Edit: Adding to that, Linux does not have a stable driver interface, and regularly changes between releases. That means that messy sloppy code that is unupstreamable will quickly be unable to move forward to future Linux versions without increasingly herculean efforts. You'll be trapped on an old kernel indefinitely if you follow that path - just like the Android situation.
Edit 2: And I'm not exaggerating that Correlium's code was sloppy. Almost none of it ended up in the Asahi Linux project. Also Corellium basically dumped that code for fun and then quickly gave up trying to keep it up to date.
- ask_b123 5y agoWhat's the situation with Android?
- opan 5y agoNew phones on old kernels, usually forever.
- userbinator 5y agoAdding to that, Linux does not have a stable driver interface, and regularly changes between releases. That's unfortunate, but it seems to be a bit of a common theme in open-source to say "you have the source, we don't care if we broke your code, fix it yourself". I suppose that might've been an attempt to discourage closed-source drivers, but... You'll be trapped on an old kernel indefinitely if you follow that path - just like the Android situation. ...that didn't have the desired effect either.
- conradev 5y agoIf the drivers are upstreamed into the mainline kernel then they are updated in kind when the interface changes and Asahi intends to upstream as much as they can
- WhyNotHugo 5y agoOnce things are upstreamed, anybody introducing interface-breaking changes is responsible for updating all the drivers. It’s only a burden if your own fork, or want closed source bits. Neither of these are important goals for upstream.