It will be the end of Linux on ARM. They will choke platform with blobs until the inevitable death. NVIDIA and open-source is like matter and antimatter - they simply cannot coexist in the same place and time.
Also in case you haven't noticed, the IoT domain where ARM thrives is getting full of BSD/MIT POSIX clones, guess why.
ARM mbed, Zephyr, RTOS, NuttX, Azure RTOS ThreadX, ...
> the way copyleft licenses have been managed has brought us back to the commercial licenses with source code, just under a different name to make them more appealing to younger generations.
I think, I'm following along (&agree), but to be sure, could you perhaps elaborate a bit on that? (Also for other? readers)
And not everything gets upstream, in name of keeping the main business at the company's soul, for example those optimizations used by clang on PS4? Sure all of those that don't reveal PS4 architecture features that could eventually be "misused".
The large majority of those business have moved into clang, thus reducing GCC usage to copyleft hardliners, Linux is visible on ChromeOS and Android but not on a context that it can fully profit from and then there is Fuchsia waiting on the backstage.
So in a couple of generations, when copyleft software is just a memory in digital books, we will have gone full circle to the days when buying developer software would entitle you to an extra floppy with a partial copy the source code.
The only difference is how that partial copy gets delivered, which will be just the upstream of non-copyleft software.
I can't discern from your writing tone, if you think the above is desirable or a train_wreck_in_slow_motion coming.
I think, it's the latter, not necessarily by direct effect, but by all the bad behavior this will enable in corporations for generations to come.
Huh?? ARM is probably the most popular CPU architecture in use today -- unlike x86, which is largely limited to desktop/laptop and server computing, ARM is used in a lot of embedded applications.
Even if you're only looking at mobile phones, the cellular baseband is often implemented on ARM as well, and it definitely isn't a Linux system either. (Nor is it open source.)
Compare that with https://www.slashgear.com/the-2019-global-smartphone-sales-t..., which says about 1,5 billion smartphones were sold in the four quarters of 2019.
Also, Android, I think, by now is an edge case of open source. The kernel is, but there’s a thick proprietary layer on top of it without which it wouldn’t be Android.
I tried to get real stats and didn't get far. The most I could find was that ARM was actually declining somewhat in embedded, and that embedded was less than half of revenues. Also, that ARM had 90 percent of the 'phone/tablet/laptop' market, but nothing amounting to close to a majority anywhere else.
I think I was incorrect saying that it isn't close, it likely is. I still think more go to supporting a Linux device than not, but am happy to be proven wrong if such data exists.
Also, the more are sold, the more hardware costs become important relatively to development costs, making Linux a poorer choice than smaller OSes or even bare metal.
(And the smallest really are small. https://developer.arm.com/ip-products/processors/cortex-m/co... tells me you can get a 0.0066 mm² 32-bit CPU. That one doesn’t have a MMU)
Source
Need to play the "Blob" song by OpenBSD.
https://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html#39
> Blob was popular at school he was helpful too / He could get your motor runnin' / with a drop of goo / He was givin' it away never charged a dime / But by the time he graduated / Blob was business slime!
> He was a blah blah blah blah blah blah / blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah / blah blah
> He's givin' you the Evil Eye!
> Now everybody had it / they was drivin' around / They was givin' up their freedoms / for convenience now / Blobbin' up the freeway, water black as pitch And somehow little Blobby was a growin' rich!
> He was a blah blah blah blah blah blah / blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah / blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah / blah blah
> It's linkin' time!
> Now it was out of control / n' fishy's came to depend / on Blobby's Blob Blah, seemed to be no end / Then his empire spread and to their surprise / Blobby been a growin' to incredible size!
> He's a blah blah blah blah blah blah / blah blah blah blah blah blah / blah blah blah blah blah blah / blah blah blah blah blah blah / blah blah blah blah blah blah / blah blah B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b
> Then along came a genius Doctor Puffystein / And he battled the Blob / who had crossed the line / He was 50 feet tall — Doctor said "No fear" / I got a sample of Blob I can reverse engineer!
> But it was too late! / Blob was takin' over the world! / He wants your video! / Ya he wants your net! / He wants your drive! / He wants it all!!
> Somebody help us! / Noooooooo!
> NVIDIA! / Intel! / Atheros! / 3-Ware! / VIA! / ATI! / Broadcom! / TI! / Myricom! / HighPoint! / Adaptec! / Mylex! / ICP Vortex! / and IBM!
> Takin' over the world!