You'd think this sort of stuff belonged to the past - but no. Apparently, Microsoft is afraid of Android on its Windows 8 tablets, because Intel has just announced that it will provide no support for Linux on its clover Trail processors. Supposedly, this chip is "designed for Windows 8". What?
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Member since:2005-11-16
Member since:2007-11-11
This is the classic FOSSies move called "moving the goalposts" and is frankly bull.
Android is a proprietary OS owned by Google, it has as much to do with FOSS as OSX, and servers? Not gonna be running Atom chips, especially not one designed for tablets and netbooks.
So just to be clear we are not talking about your router, cell phone, or the cluster at CERN, okay? Geez what is it with you guys acting like religious whackos and refusing to stay on topic? And if you would like a link to share to back me up? All you had to do is ask..
http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qp...
If you will kindly look at the actual figures you'll see WinVista, the most HATED MS OS since WinME, has FIVE times the share of Linux. In fact up until last quarter JavaME actually had you beat by .04%.
So I'm sorry but why should Intel care about an OS that has 1.05% share in the consumer market, the market this chip is aimed at? Answer they shouldn't, because obviously not enough people buy your product to make it worth caring about.
But don't blame me, I'm just stating facts. if you don't like it quit letting the devs get away with murder and demand a better product. that's how the free market works you know, if you offer a good product you do good, a bad product does bad. Even MS isn't immune to that, see Vista.
Member since:2007-04-18
Let's be clear, this is pure unsupported conjecture. (N.B. not agreeing with you doesn't mean I agree with Thom.)
How about at least putting out a binary blob driver, like lots of vendors do? (nVidia, AMD, Broadcom, etc.) This argument has been shown to be wrong before.
You do realize that the non-Apple tablet market (for which this chip is almost certainly targeted) is about 100% Android (and thus Linux)? Windows 8 has 0% of the market. Thus, from a pure business perspective (even accepting your above arguments about IGPs), it makes next to no sense at all to target a non-existent market with a new product, unless there are other motives behind it as well (such as an exclusivity deal with Microsoft). Just to drive this point home a bit better, let's quote the linked article on the The Inquirer:
Is this absolute 100% proof that Intel and Microsoft have an exclusivity deal? No. But it makes it extremely likely, to the point of being beyond a reasonable doubt.
Edited 2012-09-15 10:22 UTC
Member since:2007-04-23
An x86 port of Android would be a red headed stepchild...
Best case it would be no worse than the more common ARM devices, it would run the same platform neutral or open source apps, with equivalent performance and battery life.
Worst case...
It won't run a large number of existing Android apps which are closed source and only compiled for ARM.
It will use more power than competing ARM designs, and therefore have inferior battery life.
An x86 windows tablet on the other hand, does offer benefits over an arm based windows tablet (availability of existing programs, albeit program unsuitable for use on a tablet ui)... The windows tablets will be different enough to the android tablets to mask any efficiency differences, and the x86 tablets will be sufficiently better than the crippled arm version of windows that many people will be happy to sacrifice some battery life for a massively superior device.
Member since:2006-09-15
Member since:2007-03-26
Just a tip from one who breeds Burmese Cats
I can't speak for all developers, but I work for more than just a saucer or milk - my rates are usually catnip and heavy petting.
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A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)"."The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight.""And so it is with Dell's Alienware X51 R2, a small form factor gaming PC in console digs. It's shaped similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Slim, and though it's slightly larger than either a 360 or PlayStation 3, the X51 R2 would be right at home in a living room setting nestled next to a large screen TV. Indeed, it's adept at running Steam's Big Picture mode, and if your primary objective is to play games in the living room, go ahead and consider the X51 R2 a hybrid game console." This is obviously not the only machine like this - still, these are very valid console alternatives even for those that don't like being hunched over with a cramped WASD-claw. Also, PC gamers among us: could you get away with the $699 model for gaming?
From Bloomberg: "Microsoft, the world's largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes." The lid has officially been blown off.
"The key takeaway we've reached (after two less than 24 hours playing with the iOS 7 Beta release) is this - every App must consider even basic updates to its UI to survive in a post-iOS 6 world." Great. Telling developers to update their entire application - user interface and behaviour alike - to target a look and behaviour that isn't final yet. Seems like potential for a lot of wasted work here."Overall the app is really basic, and designed for on the go editing. Microsoft says it's not planning to create an iPad version, noting that tablet users can utilize the Office Web Apps instead. We'd like to see some additional options for editing, including more clear options for text formatting and the ability to insert and change images, but it's a solid attempt for something you're only really going to use for editing in emergencies." A resounding meh can be heard from all over the world."Today, most people are using modern browsers that support the majority of the latest web technologies. Better yet, the usage of legacy browsers is declining significantly and newer browsers stay up to date automatically, which means the leading edge has become mainstream. Given these factors we've decided to retire Chrome Frame, and will cease support and updates for the product in January 2014." Eh.
Member since:
2007-11-11
Its more likely it doesn't have a thing to do with MS and has everything to do with IP. Its pretty well known that Intel has been using PowerVR IGPs in many of its mobile processors and PowerVR really couldn't care less about Linux support.
So what is Intel supposed to do? The IGPs they have in the core series will blow the power budget, their other in house IGP suck, so that pretty much leaves the PowerVR team.
If Linux would have gotten more than 1% of the market this wouldn't have happened, but getting the devs on the same page is like herding cats so give it up, Intel had to make a call and take the best they could get that would support the most consumers. After all its not like they could call up Nvidia after they shafted them out of the IGP business could they?