Open-Source CPU Architecture Pulled Into Linux 3.1 Kernel

[ChrisXY]

1. editing the .config once (in your entire lifetime) to exclude all the subsystems and hardware you don't care about. Time investment: hours, but a one-time cost. Save your .config in your email, in your cloud storage locker, on your tape backup, or print it out on paper -- whatever. Just keep it.
2. make oldconfig

couldn't do?

No. That just won't do it.

Take the Atheros AR9287 for example. In kernel 3.0 it gained a new option:
CONFIG_ATH9K_PCI
It just won't work without that option set. With time you'd need to press y/n in the configuration more and more.

[FireBurn]

No. That just won't do it.

Take the Atheros AR9287 for example. In kernel 3.0 it gained a new option:
CONFIG_ATH9K_PCI
It just won't work without that option set. With time you'd need to press y/n in the configuration more and more.

Clearly you've never used oldconfig

You are always asked about new options when they appear

It's one of the reasons you should always have a minimal .config to make bisecting easier

[deanjo]

Clearly you've never used oldconfig

You are always asked about new options when they appear

It's one of the reasons you should always have a minimal .config to make bisecting easier

With his

With time you'd need to press y/n in the configuration more and more.

I would say he clearly does.

[V!NCENT]

What some call bloat here is what I call 'fsck yeah!' in this particular case.

You see, these OpenRISC designs are for ARM IP, used by an actual company that sells to actual companies such as Samsung, which makes actual phones. Free libre ARM SoC's that can kill the standard 'fork the Linux kernel and make this piece of ARM crap work'-mentality.

This work may ultimately be the groundwork for being able to download any particular distro to your smartphone and have it work out of the box, much like x86 CPU's.

I know; it's a long way, but after SonyEricson said they'd open up their locked bootloaders and now HTC shipping with unlocked bootloaders, we might even get rid of Android and have a whole new type of distro's, such as MeeGo, made for smartphones.

[Yfrwlf]

Back on the topic of the article: I'm really glad that people are still pushing forward with open hardware. Hopefully this open knowledge about hardware will spread to graphics processing, and in a few years we'll be able to purchase a video card with completely open hardware that's at least competitive with Intel IGPs of the time. Then it would be a no-brainer to write open source drivers for it, because you don't have to beg the manufacturer to release little tidbits of "sanitized" information about their "intellectual property" hardware (yes, AMD, I'm making fun of you and your ridiculous anti-competitive chess moves.)

Definitely. Of course AMD is at fault, but so are Nvidia and all the others to various degrees, they all have patents. You can also blame the corporate donations from monopolies to the officials controlling the patent offices, or the general (and mostly unaware) public for not stopping it or going along with governments which allow such under-the-table deals.

Yes, believe it or not, without patents businesses would still seek better ideas, and ideas are more readily available than they ever were now days with the Internet.

Patents do more harm than good, by far, because of all the harmful effects these monopolies on ideas cause. Read Against Intellectual Monopoly.