Re: Is a Raptor Blackbird (or other Power machine) a good general-purpose desktop?
On 03/23/23 Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton wrote:
you have fallen as have the very software communities you
quote into the trap of assuming "desktop [and HPC]" === "ALL
software worldwide".
unfortunately it is not, and the loss of BE support because
"why would desktop need it??" illustrates that perfectly.
talk to anyone doing network-centric distros and they will
not be happy, explaining in great detail how performance and
critical latency are really severely impacted on LE-centric
hardware.
there are even companies doing custom FPGA Products to
bi-directionally *REORDER* IP protocol Packets
"because bloody Intel bloody LE"!
Thanks.
I get that. I love diversity and I loved the possibility to choose and
be different.
But if I want to continue to use Gentoo Linux on my systems, and I run
into compile errors all the time (due to rolling releases) and can't
even use the just released kernel because "this one has issues on PPC64,
use an older [tested] one...", then this is the reality I live in.
While it definitely is my hobby to use Gentoo Linux on my main and
Debian on most of my other machines (and I plan to try Arch), it's also
true that I actually want to use the machine as a desktop. With amd64 I
can do that, like I could in the past on Apple's Power Macs. But not
anymore. Bloody who now?
I don't know, I just know that it is how it is.
I could always use my now about 20 year old Power Mac G5 as a server of
some kind for IP protocol stuff. But that would be a real mess: it uses
up around 130 watts just for running idle. Every modern LE system would
outperform it while using up way less power. And while the Power Mac
G5's main objective is to heat up the room while running, mine is to use
it on occasion as a simple desktop system, because burning some hundreds
of watts for fun is the very definition of a hobby. Just like when I'm
gaming on my Windows PC...
The real issue here, for me as a Linux user with the history I layed out
already, is to get any non-Intel system really, that is something will
supported on Linux, and that is free from the firmware up, while still
being affordable. In short: usable as a Linux desktop system.
I've been looking for a Linux PC (desktop and laptop) for years. Apple
only makes computers for themselves, now more so than in the past. PCs
are almost 100% Windows systems, with the product key embedded in the
firmware and everything being specific to Microsoft and its Windows,
plain to see when my Linux boots up with the message:
[ 4.262935] ACPI: [Firmware Bug]: BIOS _OSI(Linux) query ignored
The Chromebook, which I never was bought, seemed finally like something
worth trying, until I realized it was only a Google cloud computing
client, and not expandable in any way and not for Linux, but for Google.
Not in the spirit of Linux.
I got interested in the Raptor II when it was announced, until I saw the
price. And I read various reports of software not working properly on
it. It reminded me very much of my Power Mac G5, only performance-wise
faster and state-of-the-art, naturally, but still with the same
problems. I might be wrong, but I'm afraid to try it only to find I
cannot compile Firefox or KDE Plasma desktop without regularly filing
bug reports and fix issues with the developers... That's not how I use
my desktop Linux.
So where does this put us then?
Where is my FOSS Linux desktop and notebook, that is not a Windows PC?
I'll probably buy a RISC-V board when it ever becomes available, in the
form of a Raspberry Pi equivalent. Because I'd pay ~ 100 to 200 Dollars,
which is absolutely worth it for a hobby. If something doesn't run... I
don't care, at that price. But not when I pay thousands of Dollars for
an expandable main desktop system.
Considering that the generalized topic is "Is a [x, where x is non-x86
mainstream] a good general-purpose desktop?" -- what is more general
purpose than a desktop system? But maybe a unique desktop Linux system
in form of (more) open hardware is just a dream and there is no market
for it? (Considering how well it works on x86 anyways, so maybe that's
what desktop Linux is supposed to use...)
Linux User #330250
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