Eighteen months after shipping, AMD's Personal Internet Communicator, aimed at lowering the cost of computing so half the world could enjoy Internet access by 2015, apparently still doesn't run Linux. It now appears the design may actually be rigged to block the use of Linux.
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Member since:2005-11-14
No one forced AMD to go with GS. GS' specialty is creating single-purpose firmware to discourage hacking, and that was in all likelihood as much a motive for AMD as Apple picking a CSM-less EFI to initially discourage running Windows.
Fewer types of configurations means less to have to support. Given the price tag, AMD is likely very keen on limiting the amount of money they could potentially lose on having to give whitebox-level support to customers even if the warranty already prohibits it.
The other upside for them is that they get to keep more of their hardware mojo secret. Make it open to OSS OSes, and geeks will reverse engineer your platform itself and potentially expose your flaws, corner cutting, mistakes, etc.
I hate it too, but I can see their motive.
Member since:
2005-12-18
PIC is noting more than a low cost PC, if General Software produce BIOS for medical equipament or for customer who don't want they equipament being used for other purposes don't make sense in such context.
So, they rendered the PIC a capped version of full blow computer although it can behave as such, a complete disrespect for their customers.