On Mon, Dec 2, 2013 at 7:50 AM, Matthieu Herrb <mhe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 26, 2013 at 02:00:53PM -0800, Chris Cappuccio wrote: > > Chris Cappuccio [ch...@nmedia.net] wrote: > > > openda...@hushmail.com [openda...@hushmail.com] wrote: > > > > Hi, > > > > > > > > What are the ups and downs of replacing Linux with OpenBSD in > Google's Android operating system? I guess this question would apply to the > new Sailfish OS as well. > > > > > > OpenBSD is designed for mobile phones. Of course Google should have > used it. > > > > Ok instead of my stupid smartass answer. > > > > How about this: > > > > 1. OpenBSD now includes KMS and could support systems like Wayland that, > > in theory, are probably better suited for mobile (or any modern graphics > > in general) than X11 (At least, the Nokia developer who spent years > > hacking X11 into the N900 series thinks so) > > > > > 2. OpenBSD has a license that is well suited for inclusion into devices, > > even more so than GPLv2 (Although most manufacturers don't seem to mind > > the GPLv2 because Linus built in various exceptions into his model) > > > > 3. The chips that support these various phones are all proprietary, > > undocumented, and the manufacturers only produce support blobs to match > > the Linus licensing model and the Linux kernel on these devices. > > > > 4. OpenBSD has a tight and compact model that should be easy for > > embedded developers to embrace > > > > 5. OpenBSD does not currently do much to support various phones > > although it does have ever increasing support for ARMv7 chipsets which > > is what all of them run on (that and ARMv8 now) > > > > Obviously the biggest hurdle is #3 and of course someone has to > > have the interest, which is invariably going to be a manufacturer, > > and currently manufacturers embrace Linux, because it has > > a lot of knowledge/attention/momentum in this area. > > > > Yes, and also the fact that the userland for a phone or a tabled has > to be quite different from the userland for a desktop/laptop kind of > machine. Without a keyboard, you need touch-screen enabled > applications to install the system, set it up and interact with it. > > And there are specific needs in terms of kernel services to be able to > route audio to/from the "phone" part of your device, wake it up on > incoming calls,... > > So this would not be OpenBSD, but merely a system based on a BSD-ish > kernel plus some BSD base libs (libc, libm, what else). > > Most of the rest would need to be rewritten or ported from > Android/Sailfish/Mozilla OS/... > > At EuroBSDCon 2004 in KA, in his Keynote lecture¹, Jordan Hubbard said > he was seeing a future for NetBSD in this area, since they already had > all the tools to cross-compile the base system in a much nicer way > than linux. Well 9 years later this has not happened. > > ¹) http://2004.eurobsdcon.org/uploads/media/EBSD04_keynote.pdf page 48 > -- > Matthieu Herrb > > cross compiling is really missing in openBSD to handle very small Platform which does not have the power to compile, and more. Thats why i sometimes hope the BSD was just working branches, ready to merge into bestBSD. -- () ascii ribbon campaign - against html e-mail /\
