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Linux support is quite solid already, and Debian (largest Linux distribution) builds over 95% of packages for this architecture. The only major runtime missing

by snvzz 4y ago

Linux support is quite solid already, and Debian (largest Linux distribution) builds over 95% of packages for this architecture. The only major runtime missing is dotnet. This is about Android, which is very different from your average Linux system.

bee_rider 4y ago
I quite like Linux, but it doesn’t appear to be super popular among consumers. (This is not intended as a slight — IMO open source works best as a community project by developers, trying to spread it to people who aren’t able to contribute doesn’t really help either party that much).
- snvzz 4y ago
  If that's your concern, Android (the story's topic) is very much popular among consumers. Windows, MacOS and IOS also are, but the community cannot port these. There are less popular / niche, community-run OS projects like Haiku which already run on RISC-V.
  - bee_rider 4y ago
    Yep! This is why, despite not being an Android user, I’m (speculatively) happy to see Google kind of kick-starting the software ecosystem. Hopefully that’ll lead to higher performance hardware, and it’ll eventually hit the point where we want to run proper desktop Linux on it. Still some potential pitfalls, hopefully we won’t get super locked down hardware (I’m under the impression that that’s a bit of a problem in the phone universe).
- sliken 4y ago
  How do you define Linux? The Linux kernel runs on billions of Android phones. It's also runs on chromebooks which sell in high volumes to kids in the K-12 schools.
  - bee_rider 4y ago
    I was responding to someone else who’d talked about Linux, so I think the question is better directed their way. However, they talked about Debian and put it in the category of Linux, and then specifically contrasted against Android as a separate thing, so I think we’re informally talking about the conventional desktop Gnu+SystemD+Too many other groups to list Linux ecosystem.
sliken 4y ago
Sure. But if google gets the Linux kernel inside android to run well on Risc-V, that's going to be a large fraction of the work required to get Linux running. Not a ton architecture specific code in user space, especially since things like gcc, glibc, and friends are already ported.

by snvzz 4y ago

bee_rider 4y ago

I quite like Linux, but it doesn’t appear to be super popular among consumers. (This is not intended as a slight — IMO open source works best as a community project by developers, trying to spread it to people who aren’t able to contribute doesn’t really help either party that much).

snvzz 4y ago
If that's your concern, Android (the story's topic) is very much popular among consumers. Windows, MacOS and IOS also are, but the community cannot port these. There are less popular / niche, community-run OS projects like Haiku which already run on RISC-V.
- bee_rider 4y ago
  Yep! This is why, despite not being an Android user, I’m (speculatively) happy to see Google kind of kick-starting the software ecosystem. Hopefully that’ll lead to higher performance hardware, and it’ll eventually hit the point where we want to run proper desktop Linux on it. Still some potential pitfalls, hopefully we won’t get super locked down hardware (I’m under the impression that that’s a bit of a problem in the phone universe).
sliken 4y ago
How do you define Linux? The Linux kernel runs on billions of Android phones. It's also runs on chromebooks which sell in high volumes to kids in the K-12 schools.
- bee_rider 4y ago
  I was responding to someone else who’d talked about Linux, so I think the question is better directed their way. However, they talked about Debian and put it in the category of Linux, and then specifically contrasted against Android as a separate thing, so I think we’re informally talking about the conventional desktop Gnu+SystemD+Too many other groups to list Linux ecosystem.

sliken 4y ago

Sure. But if google gets the Linux kernel inside android to run well on Risc-V, that's going to be a large fraction of the work required to get Linux running. Not a ton architecture specific code in user space, especially since things like gcc, glibc, and friends are already ported.