
AMD "Hondo" APUs May Not Be Too Linux Friendly - protomyth
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTE4NTY
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ANTSANTS
I'm 99% certain this is Microsoft trying to ensure that OEMs don't cheapen the
Windows 8 brand by reusing hardware designs across their Android and Windows 8
tablets. Not all consumers understand the difference between software and
hardware, and if they see the same tablet in a Windows 8 version and a cheaper
Android version, a lot of them will chose the Android version without a second
thought.

Since the chipsets lack Linux/Android support entirely, reusing the other
parts of a tablet design will not be quite as easy as writing a different
image to a flash chip. I'm no embedded systems engineer, but I imagine having
to completely replace the chipset architecture (let alone the chipset itself)
would be a significant deterrent to entirely reusing a Windows 8 tablet's
design for an Android one.

Even if Microsoft chose to coerce OEMs into pricing their Android and Windows
8 offerings identically (or, on a cold day in hell, temporarily waive the
Windows 8 license fee), competing for consumers with (arguably) superior
software alone against an enormous incumbent with an established platform is a
fight Microsoft has been on the other side of far too many times to want to
start out of the gate.

Alternatively, perhaps Microsoft _is_ subsidizing their OEM tablets, and they
don't want savvy customers to buy subsidized Windows 8 tablets and flash their
Android "ROMs" of choice onto them.

This sucks for regular Linux users who might like to see either of these
chipsets in a new generation of netbooks, but I imagine we aren't too
important to AMD and Intel's bottom lines at the moment.

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rbanffy
It's not the chipsets that lacks Linux support. It's Linux that doesn't (yet)
support the chipsets. Also, unless Intel and AMD keep the specs secret, there
is little they can do against Linux supporting them.

What I'm reading from this is that Microsoft is dedicating developers to make
sure Windows 8 supports the chipsets (possibly introducing ACPI-like brain-
dead technologies in the process).

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jerf
After some thought, what's interesting about this story isn't that some people
are making some hardware that will work only in Windows. That happens all the
time. What's interesting is that this fact is attracting any sort of attention
at all.

~~~
Locke1689
Eh. On Phoronix.

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taylodl
So is this how Microsoft is going to fight Linux on the desktop?

~~~
wmf
In this case Microsoft doesn't need to fight Linux. The burden of proof is on
Linux to succeed. If there are no Linux drivers, that's probably just because
no one paid for them to be written.

~~~
bryanlarsen
We don't want drivers, we just want complete and accurate specs.

~~~
sliverstorm
ATI tried providing documentation in response to the community's pleas. If
memory serves, the community responded by demanding example code, friendly
API's, and so forth. The classic "moving goalposts", if you will.

~~~
tux1968
Citations needed. Of course there will be some people who will always ruminate
about how things could be even better, but that doesn't undo what AMD
accomplished. The feature matrix for open source Radeon drivers is a bit of a
patchwork, but far better than it was before they open sourced the
documentation.

<http://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature>

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_seininn
What AMD and intel don't seem to realize is that people like me have no qualms
moving to platforms that do support linux (Even if we end up using a raspberry
pi to do our main computing).

The result is that amd will just alienate some of it's customers and end up
with a smaller audience. Well done, AMD.

~~~
gareim
I think they believe that such an audience is rather small. However, I do
think it's a stupid move. If they continue supporting Windows exclusively,
they might run into problems with the server crowd. Which is a pretty
important group.

~~~
wmf
The sever crowd that uses crappy tablet chips? To be clear, Opteron still
fully supports Linux.

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neurotech1
I think that Microsoft is feeling the heat from Linux/Android, which is why
they pushed Intel (& AMD) to go Windows-8 only.

It also is quite likely that that AMD Hondo requires power management features
that are not currently available in the kernel/ UEFI bootloader for Linux.
Hopefully someone will find a way to support the APU, even if not officially.

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zokier
So the news is that we don't get fglrx support for Hondo? That doesn't sound
nearly as dramatic as "being Windows-only product" etc. Frankly I couldn't
care less for fglrx support. If there is demand then it will be reverse
engineered, like tons of other hardware has been.

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trentlott
So they force Linux developers to become more clever about interfacing with
hardware and pulling whatever they can out of the chips.

I'm sure that'll make Microsoft stronger in the future.

