Google Chrome/Chromium Begins Landing POWER PPC64LE Patches

[ms178]

In openSUSE, VAAPI hardware acceleration in Chromium is enabled by default and works well on my PCs.

Yes, some distros took the blue pill and do ship their Chromium builds with the VAAPI patches included and enabled by default. But I'd rather like to see Google taking the patches and maintain them than pushing the maintanance work to the distros.

[starshipeleven]

I can't decide yet what will happen sooner, Google accepting the VAAPI patches or POWER9 gaining traction in the consumer desktop segment again.

Hell will freeze over and pigs will fly

[starshipeleven]

All that being said, if Chrome/Chromium spent less time implementing bloated features nobody asked for, they could spend more time with things people actually care about like optimizations, architecture-specific patches, and video acceleration.

The point here is that Google is paying the bills with the additional features, not people using Chromium on Linux.

[starshipeleven]

I am thinking about getting one, and maybe it can be used to compile packages for POWER4 Linux. In fact, I wonder how much work it would be to compile Ubuntu 18.04 for PowerPC(I am thinking, compile the packages needed for a base 18.04 install, and then maybe the top 100 extra packages)

Don't. It runs like crap. It's a decade that runs like crap.

[starshipeleven]

Yes, some distros took the blue pill and do ship their Chromium builds with the VAAPI patches included and enabled by default. But I'd rather like to see Google taking the patches and maintain them than pushing the maintanance work to the distros.

I see more likely to have a community effort that maintains all the stuff Google can't be bothered to accept upstream. Something like "Tuxium".

[curaga]

There are newer options than old Macs if you want to play with Power. I linked yesterday a refurb POWER8 server (now sold out unfortunately), such options appear once in a while. Some Xbox 360s can run Linux, and all WiiUs are hackable. Raptor's Blackbird is new and POWER9, but the mobo+cpu combo is over 1k.

[-MacNuke-]

In openSUSE, VAAPI hardware acceleration in Chromium is enabled by default and works well on my PCs.

You may want to read my last sentence again.

[Charlie68]

You may want to read my last sentence again.

But this is the beauty of open source software, if it does not Google, others can do it. Google for its part has explained the reason for this choice, which is related to too many problems and fragmentation of Gnu / Linux. It is no coincidence that openSUSE had to even patch Mesa to make it work properly.

[schmidtbag]

The point here is that Google is paying the bills with the additional features, not people using Chromium on Linux.

Mind explaining how exactly is Google paying bills for features people didn't ask for and don't generate ad revenue?

[starshipeleven]

Mind explaining how exactly is Google paying bills for features people didn't ask for and don't generate ad revenue?

What features you think people didn't ask for and are not generating ad revenue?

Because there is more than just end users (also developers targeting browsers with web apps, Android "web-technology" apps, or chrome extensions), and many other indirect ways of generating revenue (through data collection in new services they can offer, through getting a cut in paid apps/extensions or ads served in-app and so on, through getting a lot of free input to test their AI algorithms that are going to be monetized in a not-so distant future).

Also, even potential future revenue if a new feature catches on is still better than 100% sure jackshit in secula seculorum, which is what they get from (third party) linux builds of chromium.