Asahi Linux progress report [LWN.net]

Asahi Linux progress report

Posted Mar 12, 2021 10:15 UTC (Fri) by rsidd (guest, #2582)
In reply to: Asahi Linux progress report by darwi
Parent article: Asahi Linux progress report

When Compaq and others created the IBM PC clone market, it became a necessity to push standardised hardware, because people wanted to run MS-DOS (later Windows) on all these machines. Microsoft and the hardware makers had an interest in interoperable hardware, and Linux benefited. Meanwhile, Apple sold its own hardware and did not need to follow any standards.

Same story today, except it's not so easy to install what OS you like on most ARM hardware (can be done, but not by just booting off a floppy or USB drive.) But, for what it's worth, Android (therefore Linux) is the OS compatible with a vast range of hardware, whose manufacturers must follow some standards if porting Android is not to be a complete nightmare. While iOS (and now macOS) are specific to Apple hardware which need not follow any standards. In this picture, Microsoft has been replaced by Google, otherwise nothing has changed since the 1980s.

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Asahi Linux progress report

Posted Mar 12, 2021 10:47 UTC (Fri) by geert (subscriber, #98403) [Link] (2 responses)

In Android, Linux has overtaken the role of the BIOS in the IBM PC?

Asahi Linux progress report

Posted Mar 14, 2021 18:19 UTC (Sun) by WolfWings (subscriber, #56790) [Link] (1 responses)

In some cases, essentially yes. Even some niche x86 hardware are booting Linux as the "bios" and then that in turn can kexec a final Linux image, or failing that you're already in a 'rescue shell' instead of having to explicitly reboot into one. And in some distros they do likewise so you can end up passing through 2 Linux kernel's before reaching your actual login prompt in the 3rd layer. CoreBoot -> Linux Payload -> Linux as a Bootloader -> Linux Desktop

Asahi Linux progress report

Posted Mar 19, 2021 9:36 UTC (Fri) by geert (subscriber, #98403) [Link]

I didn't mean any of the solutions using kexec (milo/kboot/petitboot/...) to boot Linux from Linux, but Linux really being the common ground.
MS-DOS ran on anything providing the PC BIOS API.
Android runs on anything providing (a specific) Linux userspace API.