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liam_on_linuxBut the dev teams are quite negative.
A common objection is that supporting ARM SBCs is hard, because there are so many.
This is true. There are indeed dozens, maybe hundreds, of ARM SBCs out there. Many don't have very good Linux support, which is why ARMbian exists, for example.
Supporting them all is a massive undertaking for a small community-driven OS.
But the RasPi is not just another ARM SBC. It is *the* inexpensive SBC. They had already sold *38 million* of the things by this time last year:
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-9th-birthday
As they sell about ⅔ of a million per month, and 1¾ million per quarter:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/raspberry-pi-sales-jump-heres-why-the-tiny-computers-in-demand-in-coronavirus-crisis/
There are more RasPis out there than anything since the Commodore 64 or Sinclair ZX Spectrum.
Yes there are over 20 models, but basically, if one confines one's efforts to the latest model, then they're _still_ in the millions of units, there's basically just 1 chipset to support, and they're so cheap that potential users with a different SBC can just buy a RasPi instead for the cost of a modest restaurant meal.
Even the £5 Pi Zero is a quad-core machine with ½ gig of RAM, a very capable target for most hobbyist OSes. It costs less than a small SD card.
Yes, it's true, supporting all SBCs is very hard -- *so don't*. Support 1 or at most 2 models: the best-selling ones in the world, which are in fact already the largest compatible hardware platform in the world outside of the x86 PC, with more machines that are highly compatible with each other, that have only used 2 or 3 SBCs in a decade, than even x86 Apple Macs.
It's not a comparison of equals. All ARM hardware isn't alike. Yes, there is a vast profusion of ARM hardware. Even of ARM SBCs. Even of cheap consumer end-user ARM SBCs.
But even so, despite that, there is a very clear obvious market leader, and it's well-documented, and there are already multiple FOSS OSes that run on it, with drivers available for study. Not just Linux, like basically every other ARM SBC.
Most RasPi round ups of operating systems just list half a dozen Linux distros, but OSnews readers know that Linux is just one OS. Distros are cosmetics.
*Excluding* Linux, the RasPi runs FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Plan 9, Inferno, and RISC OS. (And Windows IoT but that's not FOSS.)
No other SBC in the world can run as many different OSes. In fact, aside from the PC, I don't think any other single model range of computers ever made can run as many different OSes as the RasPi.
A common objection is that supporting ARM SBCs is hard, because there are so many.
This is true. There are indeed dozens, maybe hundreds, of ARM SBCs out there. Many don't have very good Linux support, which is why ARMbian exists, for example.
Supporting them all is a massive undertaking for a small community-driven OS.
But the RasPi is not just another ARM SBC. It is *the* inexpensive SBC. They had already sold *38 million* of the things by this time last year:
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/raspberry-pi-9th-birthday
As they sell about ⅔ of a million per month, and 1¾ million per quarter:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/raspberry-pi-sales-jump-heres-why-the-tiny-computers-in-demand-in-coronavirus-crisis/
There are more RasPis out there than anything since the Commodore 64 or Sinclair ZX Spectrum.
Yes there are over 20 models, but basically, if one confines one's efforts to the latest model, then they're _still_ in the millions of units, there's basically just 1 chipset to support, and they're so cheap that potential users with a different SBC can just buy a RasPi instead for the cost of a modest restaurant meal.
Even the £5 Pi Zero is a quad-core machine with ½ gig of RAM, a very capable target for most hobbyist OSes. It costs less than a small SD card.
Yes, it's true, supporting all SBCs is very hard -- *so don't*. Support 1 or at most 2 models: the best-selling ones in the world, which are in fact already the largest compatible hardware platform in the world outside of the x86 PC, with more machines that are highly compatible with each other, that have only used 2 or 3 SBCs in a decade, than even x86 Apple Macs.
It's not a comparison of equals. All ARM hardware isn't alike. Yes, there is a vast profusion of ARM hardware. Even of ARM SBCs. Even of cheap consumer end-user ARM SBCs.
But even so, despite that, there is a very clear obvious market leader, and it's well-documented, and there are already multiple FOSS OSes that run on it, with drivers available for study. Not just Linux, like basically every other ARM SBC.
Most RasPi round ups of operating systems just list half a dozen Linux distros, but OSnews readers know that Linux is just one OS. Distros are cosmetics.
*Excluding* Linux, the RasPi runs FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Plan 9, Inferno, and RISC OS. (And Windows IoT but that's not FOSS.)
No other SBC in the world can run as many different OSes. In fact, aside from the PC, I don't think any other single model range of computers ever made can run as many different OSes as the RasPi.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-25 11:30 am (UTC)I can understand the reticence of the developers — I’ve done enough bare metal work to know it’s really hard to develop for a new environment. And these projects all have such scant resources.
But the Pi is ubiquitous — so -if- you were going to port to a new non x86 target, it surely makes most sense.
For Haiku and AROS they at least have their OSs running on a common platform. For MorphOS there is little or no affordable PPC hardware supported and so the only option is old PPC macs — even then I can’t, say, run on my ancient 12” G4 laptop because MorphOS doesn’t support nvidia graphics, although I did manage to get it to boot on my even older G4 Cube.
Guess I’ll have to check out the likes of Plan 9 on Pi — I wasn’t aware of this.
I guess if I really want to see Haiku or AROS on Pi, I’d have to actively contribute.
no subject
Date: 2022-03-25 06:22 pm (UTC):-)
I cannot disagee.
My favourite little-known fun fact about the RasPi: all RasPis run ThreadX underneath. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThreadX
no subject
Date: 2022-03-25 09:43 pm (UTC)