Raptor Computing Systems Is Working On Bringing Up Chrome's POWER Support

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Raptor Computing Systems Is Working On Bringing Up Chrome's POWER Support

With Raptor Computing Systems' Talos II Lite and especially the forthcoming Blackbird positioning the POWER architecture in a prime spot for use by libre Linux users who want a system that's open-source down to the firmware, they've been trying to make sure the Linux desktop stack is in order. The latest area they've been working on is browser coverage...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Raptor-Chrome-JIT-PPC64LE-Work

[kpedersen]

Perhaps they can get in touch with the guys at Iridium. I think that they might be interested to support a largely free platform like POWER.

[Michael_S]

What about Firefox? Are there difficulties getting the Rust parts to build on Power9 processors?

[ssokolow]

What about Firefox? Are there difficulties getting the Rust parts to build on Power9 processors?

I'm also curious about that, given that it would seem more fitting to have the free-to-the-firmware machines running the browser developed by a public-interest non-profit, rather than a publicly-traded ad-tech corporation.

[freespirit]

I'm also curious about that, given that it would seem more fitting to have the free-to-the-firmware machines running the browser developed by a public-interest non-profit, rather than a publicly-traded ad-tech corporation.

I agree, i do not understand why build a opensourcefrehardwareforpeoplewholovefreadom and than support chromium, made by an evil company who just care about have monopoly all over the tech.
I really hope they will support firefox instead, maybe they are more interested to review raptor code to integrate in the mainline.

[Michael_S]

Perhaps they can get in touch with the guys at Iridium. I think that they might be interested to support a largely free platform like POWER.

It looks like the Iridium code hasn't had any commits, at least not on their public repo, in five months: https://git.iridiumbrowser.de/cgit.cgi/iridium-browser/ is the project still active?

I wish I had heard of it sooner, I like the idea. That said, I very much want Firefox to succeed. Despite all of Mozilla's missteps, I think a WebKit/Blink monoculture is bad for the web. Since the only two major competitors to WebKit/Blink are Gecko and EdgeHTML and Mozilla could set fire to a few orphanages and still be a better organization than Microsoft, the world needs Gecko.

[kpedersen]

I still think Mozilla need to be kept under a watchful eye and controlled. For example they are still looking at doing some non-ethical things in order to make a quick buck. Yes, not on the scale of Google but I think in the future, Mozilla fans are to be in for a bit of a disappointment. Not due to issues with the browser but rather their commitment to freedom.

As for technical stuff, since Rust uses LLVM as a back end, I am assuming this shouldn't be too hard to get ported to POWER? If it is, then this is yet another reason why keeping with C as a language has many benefits to portability.

[bridgman]

I agree, i do not understand why build a opensourcefrehardwareforpeoplewholovefreadom and than support chromium, made by an evil company who just care about have monopoly all over the tech.

The article actually said Chrome, not Chromium... same backers but the open source version not the closed / packaged builds.

[Dawn]

How nice to see Google continues to take being an OpenPower Platinum member seriously by ignoring an attempt to make Power usable on the desktop...

[Michael_S]

I still think Mozilla need to be kept under a watchful eye and controlled. For example they are still looking at doing some non-ethical things in order to make a quick buck. Yes, not on the scale of Google but I think in the future, Mozilla fans are to be in for a bit of a disappointment. Not due to issues with the browser but rather their commitment to freedom.

Well, the Mozilla foundation lives mostly on money from Google, so yes they have the exact same conflict of interest that Google does. "We're all about user privacy... except we can't be so incredibly focused on it that we bite the hand that feeds us and they stop paying." I do realize that.

But again, I don't see any better option out there. It would be different if the people abandoning Firefox were jumping to some more open alternative. Instead, again, they're usually going to Chrome or at best Chromium. Out of frying pan, into fire.

As for technical stuff, since Rust uses LLVM as a back end, I am assuming this shouldn't be too hard to get ported to POWER? If it is, then this is yet another reason why keeping with C as a language has many benefits to portability.

I don't know enough to work on it myself. How many people with the relevant skill have the interest and access to POWER hardware?