On 03/23/23 Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
you have fallen as have the very software communities you quote into the trap of assuming "desktop [and HPC]" === "ALL software worldwide".
unfortunately it is not, and the loss of BE support because "why would desktop need it??" illustrates that perfectly. talk to anyone doing network-centric distros and they will not be happy, explaining in great detail how performance and critical latency are really severely impacted on LE-centric hardware. there are even companies doing custom FPGA Products to bi-directionally *REORDER* IP protocol Packets "because bloody Intel bloody LE"!
Thanks. I get that. I love diversity and I loved the possibility to choose and be different. But if I want to continue to use Gentoo Linux on my systems, and I run into compile errors all the time (due to rolling releases) and can't even use the just released kernel because "this one has issues on PPC64, use an older [tested] one...", then this is the reality I live in. While it definitely is my hobby to use Gentoo Linux on my main and Debian on most of my other machines (and I plan to try Arch), it's also true that I actually want to use the machine as a desktop. With amd64 I can do that, like I could in the past on Apple's Power Macs. But not anymore. Bloody who now? I don't know, I just know that it is how it is. I could always use my now about 20 year old Power Mac G5 as a server of some kind for IP protocol stuff. But that would be a real mess: it uses up around 130 watts just for running idle. Every modern LE system would outperform it while using up way less power. And while the Power Mac G5's main objective is to heat up the room while running, mine is to use it on occasion as a simple desktop system, because burning some hundreds of watts for fun is the very definition of a hobby. Just like when I'm gaming on my Windows PC... The real issue here, for me as a Linux user with the history I layed out already, is to get any non-Intel system really, that is something will supported on Linux, and that is free from the firmware up, while still being affordable. In short: usable as a Linux desktop system. I've been looking for a Linux PC (desktop and laptop) for years. Apple only makes computers for themselves, now more so than in the past. PCs are almost 100% Windows systems, with the product key embedded in the firmware and everything being specific to Microsoft and its Windows, plain to see when my Linux boots up with the message: [ 4.262935] ACPI: [Firmware Bug]: BIOS _OSI(Linux) query ignored The Chromebook, which I never was bought, seemed finally like something worth trying, until I realized it was only a Google cloud computing client, and not expandable in any way and not for Linux, but for Google. Not in the spirit of Linux. I got interested in the Raptor II when it was announced, until I saw the price. And I read various reports of software not working properly on it. It reminded me very much of my Power Mac G5, only performance-wise faster and state-of-the-art, naturally, but still with the same problems. I might be wrong, but I'm afraid to try it only to find I cannot compile Firefox or KDE Plasma desktop without regularly filing bug reports and fix issues with the developers... That's not how I use my desktop Linux. So where does this put us then? Where is my FOSS Linux desktop and notebook, that is not a Windows PC? I'll probably buy a RISC-V board when it ever becomes available, in the form of a Raspberry Pi equivalent. Because I'd pay ~ 100 to 200 Dollars, which is absolutely worth it for a hobby. If something doesn't run... I don't care, at that price. But not when I pay thousands of Dollars for an expandable main desktop system. Considering that the generalized topic is "Is a [x, where x is non-x86 mainstream] a good general-purpose desktop?" -- what is more general purpose than a desktop system? But maybe a unique desktop Linux system in form of (more) open hardware is just a dream and there is no market for it? (Considering how well it works on x86 anyways, so maybe that's what desktop Linux is supposed to use...) Linux User #330250
