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Nah. I have older netbooks (remember them?) and they are still more usable (with linux) than my old ipad.
by Donckele 3y ago
Nah. I have older netbooks (remember them?) and they are still more usable (with linux) than my old ipad.
- scarface_74 3y agoDoes your old Netbook have only 256MB of RAM and 500Mhz processor?
- smoldesu 3y agoBecause if so, that's enough to run 4 simultaneous instances of Linux!
- scarface_74 3y agoHow well will that work with the modern web and modern web browsers?
- smoldesu 3y agoGreat! On paper it could handle Apache and NGINX like a charm, your modern web browsers would have no trouble accessing it.
- scarface_74 3y agoWhat does that have to do with running a modern web browser on a device with 256MB RAM and a single core 500Mhz processor?
- smoldesu 3y agoNothing. Linux isn't a web browser. It will still work just fine with your modern web browsers though, as a server.
- scarface_74 3y agoSo now I’m going to put an open source operating system on my first gen 256MB RAM iPad to run a web server and that’s the same functionality I had in 2010 when I was using it to browse the then modern web?
- smoldesu 3y agoYou could arrange it like that, sure. Webkit ships Linux builds, there are DEs that will give you a miserable but usable experience on those specs. If you really want to condemn yourself to a fate Apple doesn't support, there's no technical reason you couldn't. Replacing the same functionality was never an inherent part of the deal though. There will never be Find My Linux or the Linux Store. The overall idea is that we put older hardware to use instead of recycling it for marginal returns on scrap. It's why they put "Reuse" before "Recycle" in the EPA maxim.
- scarface_74 3y agoSo your alternative to mean old Apple not allowing you to run Linux is to have a shitty experience running Linux on hardware that wouldn’t meet the needs of a modern consumer ?
- smoldesu 3y agoMaybe. Apple doesn't let you put third-party OSes on iPhones or iPads, it's unclear what would happen if they did. It would probably start with something niche like a barebones Linux port, but then it might turn into an Asahi-style project that does give the user a perfectly normal user experience. Maybe people start shipping CalyxOS-style hardened iOS distributions for people who want to further neuter Apple's control over their system. Or maybe people reverse-engineer a Vulkan driver onto the hardware and use iPads as low-power ASICs. The sky is really the limit, here.
- scarface_74 3y agoWhat’s “unclear”? A modern web browser wouldn’t be any more performant than a safari is in 2023 on any pre-64 bit iOS device. Not that 32-bit or 64-bit by itself makes a difference. But the devices were dreadfully slow and RAM constrained by todays standards. Which modern browser engine do you real think would work decently on such a device? Besides that, no pre- 2012 iOS devices supported 4G and the carriers are dropping 3G support completely in the US by the end of the year. Apple hasn’t abandoned any 64 bit post 2013 device yet. It reduced a security update for the iPhone 5s this year.