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MeeGo to return next month with Jolla phone launch (The H)MeeGo to return next month with Jolla phone launch (The H)Posted Oct 10, 2012 21:09 UTC (Wed) by swetland (subscriber, #63414)In reply to: MeeGo to return next month with Jolla phone launch (The H) by shmerl Parent article: MeeGo to return next month with Jolla phone launch (The H)
I disagree with you here.
Admittedly my knowledge is only based on seven years of working on Linux driver support for Android and working closely with a number of SoC vendors and on a number of lead (Nexus) devices, not reading about it online.
The quality of drivers and amount of non-open goop varies from SoC to SoC, from OEM to OEM, and from project to project, so it's difficult to make a blanket statement that in any way reflects reality.
What I will say is that for Google/Android lead devices, we've never shipped binary/proprietary kernel code -- only GPLv2 drivers, and we've never shipped binary userspace goop (opengl libraries, camera glue code, etc) where we could have shipped GPLv2 kernel drivers instead. In many cases we've written the necessary kernel drivers or worked closely with SoC and OEM partners to ensure that they get written.
We strongly prefer that drivers be open source and in the kernel. We do our best to achieve that goal, but it is not always possible.
I'm not sure that refusing to ship anything on an SoC until it has 100% Linux kernel support is a strategy that leads to overall success. I actually believe that overall success is much more about the user experience and app ecosystem than the specifics of the kernel and drivers.
Even so, there are a lot of folks working on Android who work hard to ensure we have as much open source kernel driver support as possible and strive to increase that coverage over time. Including pushing code to the mainline Linux, encouraging vendors to go for GPLv2 drivers, etc, etc.
Plenty of engineers at SoC vendors, OEMs, Linaro, etc, also work toward that goal.
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MeeGo to return next month with Jolla phone launch (The H) Posted Oct 10, 2012 21:17 UTC (Wed) by shmerl (guest, #65921) [Link]
I'm sure it's slowly can be improving, but in practice, people can't run for example Plasma Active let's say on Nexus tablet with any satisfactory results.
MeeGo to return next month with Jolla phone launch (The H) Posted Oct 10, 2012 22:04 UTC (Wed) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]
You CAN run Plasma Active on Android.
In theory, I haven't tried it (since we're talking about imaginary systems, anyway).
MeeGo to return next month with Jolla phone launch (The H) Posted Oct 10, 2012 22:12 UTC (Wed) by shmerl (guest, #65921) [Link]
I'd be glad if you can list any device where it runs well enough without any weird hardware related issues. So far any options I saw are plagued by either the lack of video acceleration, or like you said power management issues and so on. If that could be so easy as you say, Vivaldi tablet would have been out long time ago already.
MeeGo to return next month with Jolla phone launch (The H) Posted Oct 10, 2012 21:45 UTC (Wed) by dlang (✭ supporter ✭, #313) [Link]
Google does a good job with the lead (Nexus) devices, but the support elsewhere leaves a lot to be desired. Unfortunately the lead devices do not cover enough options (I'd _love_ to be able to buy a 10" tablet with a pixel qi screen that was fully open, but no such beast exists, and as far as I know, there isn't a 10" Nexus option at all)
some of this is the device manufacturers opting to not be open, a lot of it is the underlying chipset vendors opting to not be open (video chipset folks are especially bad here)
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