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That's still a lot more work than buying a board that has a supported OS... But really, the onus should be on chip makers to work on standardizing chips more (

That's still a lot more work than buying a board that has a supported OS... But really, the onus should be on chip makers to work on standardizing chips more (eg targeting SystemReady on ARM), getting their chips supported in Linux, etc. It's a lot of work to support each slightly-different SoC and relying on the community means it's a slow process and usually results in some headline features (like built-in neural engines or GPUs) never gaining support in general Linux distros. Or gaining that support like 3 years after a chip is released, meaning it's practically irrelevant at that point unless you just want to futz around with an older board for hobby purposes. It's not meaningless, but it just rubs me the wrong way seeing how much blood sweat and tears the community puts into these things without much in the way of official help.

andrewstuart 4y ago
Hey I watch you on YouTube all the time! You're right though - and it is a mystery to me why these chip makers don't invest heavily in software support. They genuinely seem to not understand the relationship between sales and software support. Espressif is doing well with its esp32 chips because they have built high quality, reliable, comprehensive software support. I won't touch any ARM device now unless its Raspberry Pi. I am somewhat puzzled that it appears to be impossible for any other company to make 100% Raspberry Pi compatible hardware, which would solve the problem.
- GekkePrutser 4y ago
  > You're right though - and it is a mystery to me why these chip makers don't invest heavily in software support. They genuinely seem to not understand the relationship between sales and software support. I think it's because they target the embedded market. They want to sell not as generic boards but to manufacturers embedding them in their hardware. This way they can charge not only for the components but also for training on the peculiarities of their chips, documentation access, support etc. I think this is the reason why so much ARM stuff is under NDAs.

andrewstuart 4y ago

Hey I watch you on YouTube all the time! You're right though - and it is a mystery to me why these chip makers don't invest heavily in software support. They genuinely seem to not understand the relationship between sales and software support. Espressif is doing well with its esp32 chips because they have built high quality, reliable, comprehensive software support. I won't touch any ARM device now unless its Raspberry Pi. I am somewhat puzzled that it appears to be impossible for any other company to make 100% Raspberry Pi compatible hardware, which would solve the problem.

GekkePrutser 4y ago
> You're right though - and it is a mystery to me why these chip makers don't invest heavily in software support. They genuinely seem to not understand the relationship between sales and software support. I think it's because they target the embedded market. They want to sell not as generic boards but to manufacturers embedding them in their hardware. This way they can charge not only for the components but also for training on the peculiarities of their chips, documentation access, support etc. I think this is the reason why so much ARM stuff is under NDAs.