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I am on that team and REALLY want it to be the case - but GNU/LInux devices are usually a significantly worse hardware experience than their walled garden cousi
by apatheticonion 24d ago
I am on that team and REALLY want it to be the case - but GNU/LInux devices are usually a significantly worse hardware experience than their walled garden cousins.
For example, there is literally no laptop on Earth as nice as the MacBook Pro. Extremely long battery life, insane CPU & GPU performance, unmatched trackpad - but it runs MacOS. Unless you're a professional video editor, the laptop is largely relegated to being a thin client for a Linux machine you SSH into (or spawn a non hardware accelerated VM and demolish performance / power).
How long would it take Apple to develop Linux drivers (even as binary blobs like nvidia)? Probably a couple of weekends. Why don't they? Because walled garden.
The MacBook is lucky in that it's a high profile device so we see projects like Asahi working at it - but again, without good documentation and despite the incredible progress, the Asahi team have spent years and created an alternative for older Apple hardware that still isn't daily drivable (not throwing shade at the project, it's incredible and I am dying to use Linux on my MacBook).
But what about devices with less enthusiastic communities? Pixel 8? Samsung TV? Asus Router? Fitbit Air? D-Link portable 5g modem? My smart blinds?
These devices have no drivers, locked bootloaders, and no community to spend years reverse engineering hardware (that will be obsolete by the time OSS drivers are developed).
I want to see my high end consumer hardware running OSS and until regulators step in to force the "right to repair software" - I don't see that happening and it breaks my heart.
- fsflover 24d agoEverything you said is true, which is why supporting alternatives that are open by design is essential. Even if they are have less powerful hardware.