Re: Is a Raptor Blackbird (or other Power machine) a good general-purpose desktop?
On 03/23/23 Riccardo Mottola wrote:
Just look at TenFourFox and the various bug reports and patches Cameron
proposed to mozilla which sometimes got accepted, sometimes ignored.
Most noticeably SKIA noit being interested in BE at all, as well as
issues with Cairo.
I am working on the ArcticFox browser and try to import most of these
fixes ftom TenFourFox to make them available on a browser not limited to
Mac.
Thanks for ArcticFox!
I personally have never used it, I'm using the Gentoo ebuild for Firefox
which is most likely a bit different to Mozilla's Firefox, but close.
On my Macs, under (long unsupported) Mac OS X, I always used TenFourFox
and I'm very very grateful to Cameron Kaiser that he kept it available.
I also see BE disappearing from lots and lots of software. My assumption
is that it simply isn't viable anymore, as most users and developers
have moved on. Even IBM moved on, POWER now is LE. So, I guess, most
developers don't want to spend their time fixing stuff for their one
test machine and those five other guys who still run it on BE machines
as a hobby...
I get that.
So, the solution would be, to reintroduce BE in big numbers. How? Well,
like the Chromebooks! Make cheap but relatively performant hardware in
big numbers and sell them to Linuxers.
There need to be two things present:
1) Fully open source firmware and full Linux support.
2) Cheap(er than stuff like the old ThinkPads with libreboot or stuff
like the Raptor II), and in large numbers.
3) Easily usable for simple users, yet customizable enough for
developers. Examples: the Raspberry Pi, the Steam Deck, the Chromebooks.
Price is key. As is Linux support and openness.
If such a hardware were to become available, in different variations
(light laptops as well as heavily customizable heavier ones, and
different desktop boards to choose from), different price ranges and
great firmware/Linux support, I'm quite certain that every Linux user
worldwide would consider getting such a device, even if it were the
cheapest version. But what you'd get would be /numbers/ of users, and
with it the power to have developers care more.
If necessary, make cooperations. IBM. Valve. I don't know, and I don't
care. But, if someone with the power to create such a thing is
listening: get it going. And get the Linux community behind you: If
Linus Torvalds were to say, he got rid of his Chromebook in favour of
the new Linux laptop -- specifically for the FOSS Linux community --
people will listen. But, again: price is key!
p.s. Sorry for hijacking your post. But if TenFourFox showed something,
than it's this: no devices -> no users -> no developers.
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