3 ms·

This was addressed at the Linux Plumbers Conference and the Linux kernel mailing list a few years ago. The problem is not just hardware manufacturers trying to

This was addressed at the Linux Plumbers Conference and the Linux kernel mailing list a few years ago. The problem is not just hardware manufacturers trying to differentiate themselves, but carriers fucking around with software loads trying to differentiate themselves. On the hardware side at least, this resulted in virtually a brand new port to every new SBC that came out, even though they were almost all ARM. It used to be you could run Linux on MIPS, SPARC, Alpha, PowerPC, Intel, etc, and not be able to tell the difference from an end user perspective. Then everyone got dollar signs in their eyes, and Google managed to fudge the whole "open" thing so that people were okay with binary drivers (I also blame Ubuntu for acceptance of this), and now you see the mess it's resulted in. Don't get me wrong, I'll take the Android bazaar with its wide variety of choice every day (and twice on Sunday) over the one-size-fits-all-we'll-tell-you-what-you-need style of iOS, but the insanity with differentiating things via closed methods needs to stop. And the Android/Linux developers are aware of the problem and dealing with it the best they can; the problem is all the handset manufacturers and carriers fucking things up.

Aldo_MX 12y ago
> the problem is all the handset manufacturers and carriers fucking things up A thousand times this! It seems that carriers exist for the solely purpose of fucking things up.
gue5t 12y ago
Thank you for calling out Ubuntu (a wolf in sheep's clothing in many ways, despite the significant role Ubuntu has played in bringing great people to the Linux community and the fact that they do a lot of good too) and fronting open-source drivers. HN seems mostly ignorant of how critical free drivers are while it continues to flock around diatribes against far-downstream effects of relying on closed blobs. User freedom stems fundamentally from the ability to make use of the components in devices they own. For the uninitiated: that's exactly what drivers do.
- ewzimm 12y ago
  Free drivers are the way to go, but pushing proprietary drivers was never really Ubuntu's fault. It has been a lack of development of free software drivers because of non-cooperation by hardware vendors. But the community has stepped up with better support for historically unsupported things like accelerated video. If you install 14.04, it does not recommend proprietary drivers except in cases where there is still a lack of options. I'm not saying Canonical is entirely innocent, but they do employ a lot of fervent free software advocates and developers. What we need to fix the situation is more pressure on hardware vendors to release specifications and free software. Perhaps if Ubuntu Touch takes off, Canonical will be in a better position to provide that pressure.
  - npsimons 12y ago
    What we need to fix the situation is more pressure on hardware vendors to release specifications and free software. Very much this. Even with the vast power that kernel developers wield, even with offers to write (for free!) and integrate drivers into mainline[1], the biggest pull is still consumers. Push your hardware vendors to (at a minimum) release specs; it's the right thing to do. [1] - For seven freaking years this offer has stood: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/487536 http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/487536 And yet we still have retarded fucking hardware companies who won't release specs. Fuck 'em - don't buy from them.

Aldo_MX 12y ago

> the problem is all the handset manufacturers and carriers fucking things up A thousand times this! It seems that carriers exist for the solely purpose of fucking things up.

gue5t 12y ago

Thank you for calling out Ubuntu (a wolf in sheep's clothing in many ways, despite the significant role Ubuntu has played in bringing great people to the Linux community and the fact that they do a lot of good too) and fronting open-source drivers. HN seems mostly ignorant of how critical free drivers are while it continues to flock around diatribes against far-downstream effects of relying on closed blobs. User freedom stems fundamentally from the ability to make use of the components in devices they own. For the uninitiated: that's exactly what drivers do.

ewzimm 12y ago
Free drivers are the way to go, but pushing proprietary drivers was never really Ubuntu's fault. It has been a lack of development of free software drivers because of non-cooperation by hardware vendors. But the community has stepped up with better support for historically unsupported things like accelerated video. If you install 14.04, it does not recommend proprietary drivers except in cases where there is still a lack of options. I'm not saying Canonical is entirely innocent, but they do employ a lot of fervent free software advocates and developers. What we need to fix the situation is more pressure on hardware vendors to release specifications and free software. Perhaps if Ubuntu Touch takes off, Canonical will be in a better position to provide that pressure.
- npsimons 12y ago
  What we need to fix the situation is more pressure on hardware vendors to release specifications and free software. Very much this. Even with the vast power that kernel developers wield, even with offers to write (for free!) and integrate drivers into mainline[1], the biggest pull is still consumers. Push your hardware vendors to (at a minimum) release specs; it's the right thing to do. [1] - For seven freaking years this offer has stood: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/487536 http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/487536 And yet we still have retarded fucking hardware companies who won't release specs. Fuck 'em - don't buy from them.