Every time I deal with arm linux, it reminds me of why every time I see threats to move away from x86 it gives me the chills in a bad way.
I could build a USB memory stick that would run on a particularly unusual Pentium 3 (since most Pentium 3s didn't have boot from USB) and would be fully capable of booting on every machine released since. Meanwhile, every memory stick that I create for arm needs to be so incredibly specific that just making bootable media is the single most difficult part.
It's kind of a shame because arm has some really cool features that would potentially make it really useful, but without the surrounding ecosystem it's just not a single thing.
I could build a USB memory stick that would run on a particularly unusual Pentium 3 (since most Pentium 3s didn't have boot from USB) and would be fully capable of booting on every machine released since. Meanwhile, every memory stick that I create for arm needs to be so incredibly specific that just making bootable media is the single most difficult part.
It's kind of a shame because arm has some really cool features that would potentially make it really useful, but without the surrounding ecosystem it's just not a single thing.
- replies
- 1
- announces
- 0
- likes
- 3
@sj_zero @Gran3Walder On the other hand, there are some things about ARM that are nicely universal: I can use the same cable, same tools, same protocol, to flash any ARM microcontroller. Compilers targeting it can make code that runs on any of them, instead of needing a different toolchain for AVR vs PIC vs whatever. So in the embedded world it’s had the opposite effect.