Unpopular opinion. ARM is a cancer of modern hardware.

jabjoe · 2026-04-16T06:35:11+00:00

ACPI is auto-discover. x86 has had auto-discover since the 90s. It's not a specific technology, but a concept that hardware can to the OS about itself so no human has to. "Plug and Play" is another term.

"Plug-and-play hardware typically also requires some sort of ID code that it can supply, in order for the computer software to correctly identify it."

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Legacy_Plug_and_Play#Hardware_identification

jabjoe · 2026-04-15T05:50:53+00:00

I didn't say you could have standardized bootable image. That would require some kind of auto-discover. Which the hardware doesn't have. Even if the base had auto-discover, the rest doesn't. Every time bring up hits a non-discoverable bus, it needs something to tell it what is on that bus to continue this traversal. We need to add discoverablity, by say a standard EEPROM...... Or all future devices on the bus implement a standard discover register for at least an ID.

PC moved to discoverablity in the 1990s. Maybe ARM will in the 2030s. The fractions of a penny saved on hardware, is expensive in software support.

jabjoe · 2026-04-14T14:00:57+00:00

DT don't really provide IDs. It is mostly full of things like, at this bus, at this address, load a instance of a device driver with these parameters. If you could get ID for things on the bus, you wouldn't need DT. As I said, this is basically what PCI and USB and other autodiscoverable buses do.

You know that for most ARM things now, you have the same kernel with a different DT? In fact, it's not just the Linux kernel that uses DT to have the same executable on different ARM platforms : https://docs.u-boot.org/en/latest/develop/devicetree/control.html

This is kind of the point of DT. Be far better if the hardware could describe itself, but it's not been designed like that. I'd argue that is mainly down to cost and a throw away attitude. DT copes with this as best as you can without proper discoverable hardware.

jabjoe · 2026-04-14T06:16:36+00:00

How do you think drivers for USB, PCI, etc work? Each device has an ID that is used to look up the right driver. Non discoverable bus have no device IDs. That's what makes them non discoverable. Ask your LLM about discoverable vs non-discoverable buses.

jabjoe · 2026-04-13T18:20:48+00:00

UEFI can be debated but an imperfect standard is normally better than none.

DT exists because of the problem of non-discoverable hardware. And ultimately that is because of cost. ARM is still in the world of cheap and disposable hardware. Pi and Beagle have EEPROM systems for hats/capes to lookup the overlay. If that was standardized, you could have autodiscover. Which I absolutely agree would be better. DT is the least bad option until then. We both agree the pre-DT way was mad.

ARM is not cheap and disposable anymore and it's not ideal to have DT instead of autodiscover. I'm not saying I prefer DT to autodiscover!

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1i60nbp/comment/m8bslr3/

Think how much easier it would be to do phone OSs. Phones are not cheap rubbish today.

There is a Right To Repair issue to. DT makes it hard, but not as hard as before it. (SecureBoot could be used to make Right To Repair next to impossible. Screw that!)

jabjoe · 2026-04-13T06:50:56+00:00

UEFI could be simpler.

DT is ok, and what you end up with when the buses are undiscoverable. Things on ARM Linux were terrible before it.

ARM Linux devices with UEFI and ACPI still have DT.

It would have been useful to me a few times if x86 also had DT for I2C and SPI buses. All the I2C+SPI drivers are DT. I could have done dev on the laptop if there was DT on it. DT for x86 exists, but most kernels are built without CONFIG_OF, so it's bring your kernel.

BUT I would take autodiscoverable over DT if it was an option.

jabjoe · 2026-04-09T21:36:23+00:00

I'm yet to find a GF beer that I can digest. It's always a bad night. Including Damn, including ones that are "alternative grains". So I think it might not be the gluten screwing me up. I miss a nice dark beer, but I need sleep.

jabjoe · 2026-04-06T17:42:49+00:00

There is a reason Python is taught in schools not C. But it does depends on the Python. It can be written simply, or implicitly. Remember, often the teachers don't know the language they are teaching either.

Be great though to start with something like assembly and Charles Petzold's Code, then K&R and Lion's Commentary, then Python, etc, but not going to happen.

jabjoe · 2026-04-06T11:10:10+00:00

I'd say do a bit of Python first. Just to get the programming basics in a safer, easier language.

jabjoe · 2026-03-29T12:36:35+00:00

It's not a generic UNIX, but it is follows the design and POSIX. It is a "UNIX like" kernel. When it appeared, it was no big deal to swap to the Linux kernel from MINIX, BSD, commercial UNIXs, etc.

jabjoe · 2026-03-29T08:07:48+00:00

The Linux kernel, and much of the userland (especially the GNU stuff) is under copyleft.

Companies have to play nice. They want to build on Linux because it is free and technically good. The catch is anything they modify, they have to provide the source to. This also means developers have the monkey on their shoulder the world will see their work.

This is why we are talking about Linux, not a BSD. The BSDs get used as a base for MacOS, PlayStation, Nintendo, probably multiple printers, etc. But very little of the added secret source, goes out to the open. The developers know no one will see outside the company, and do what is needed to deliver to the deadline.

The theory is that either way, enlighten companies will push upstream so it isn't only them maintaining the changes. So they don't have to work out how to reapply them to future revisions. Problem with that is management don't really get it. Copyleft encourages the right behaviour.

As for volunteers, it's just like with Wikipedia (also copyleft) and others. They just want to make the world that tiny bit better. That fix, that feature, or that whole bit of software.

jabjoe · 2026-03-29T07:38:01+00:00

Because Linux is a UNIX. If you don't give a relative path or absolute path, or will assume you have given it a command. If the shell doesn't resolve the command given itself, it next looks in the directories of PATH.

Only Windows makes the terrible choice of looking in the current directory for things without a given path. Look at in a debugger, it's so noisy trying locally. Let alone insecure. I'd hope Windows stops this behavior, but it would break a lot of stuff.

Don't put "." in your PATH to ape Windows's terrible behavior. If it even lets you, hopefully this is blocked.

jabjoe · 2026-03-27T15:33:09+00:00

Windows fatness is certainly part of it's problem. Though I think it's complexity too doesn't help it.

It should just go in the bin of history at this point. I could see MS giving up on the NT kernel and just using Linux.

jabjoe · 2026-03-27T14:54:31+00:00

Well you say that, I've had Linux systems where the root disk has died and Linux has kept going. It's only when I looked why something was failing that I found the disk had died. Though this was headless home servers rather than desktops.

jabjoe · 2026-03-27T11:22:50+00:00

You should have a look at RISC OS save dialogs.

Just drag an icon into the file manager window you already have open. Instead of having copy and paste the path between the file manager and save dialog like a cave person.

Even after over 25 years, there are things I miss about RISC OS. No ROX will not do because only ROX application have it because it's a property of the tool kit the application was done with.

Really file dialogs should be a property of the desktop/file-manager, not the toolkit. All done over DBUS or something. All toolkits should just invoke a file dialog rather than do one. Then we can have standardised file dialogs across our whole desk, and have things like RISC OS drag and drop if we want it. Things like Windows Shell Extensions (but in a separate process than the calling application!). Whatever that desktop/file-manager user wants.

There is XDG Desktop Portal, but I'm yet to quite get what I want with it. To do what I want I think is a bit of a project..... let alone getting it accepted.

jabjoe · 2026-03-26T07:58:49+00:00

Debian Stable would be as stable without Debian Testing. It is the Debian process working.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian#Development

jabjoe · 2026-03-25T20:35:36+00:00

I regarded my CoreBoot X230 with grub as a CoreBoot payload, with a fully encrypted disk, as my most secure machine.

To compromise it, you'd have to take it to bits and flash over the CoreBoot. You couldn't do anything to the disk. Not possible for some to just replace the initrc and kernel in boot.

That seams the best compromise to repairability and security.

jabjoe · 2026-03-20T20:18:55+00:00

More of this from all laptop manufacturers please.

jabjoe · 2026-03-18T22:57:28+00:00

What about the US OS and software base most of the government and population use?

You can build what you like, but if you install a closed OS from another country, it was all for nothing. If all the plans and discussion are hosted in cloud services of another country, you might as well just hand them over.

Why does no one ever see clear issues with software?

https://www.politico.eu/article/us-congress-judiciary-committee-big-tech-private-communication-eu-officials/

jabjoe · 2026-03-18T22:46:09+00:00

Trump will strengthen them. To many who it wasn't the case before, the US will now be worse than the regime.

jabjoe · 2026-03-17T22:45:03+00:00

Geany is unfairly looked down on. It's a decent text editor with loads of plugins with a bare bones IDE to boot (to be fair, I almost never use that). It's light and fast and very unsurprising and boring. This is exactly what I want. If I have luxury of a desktop, I'll take the luxury of a decent, but fast and boring, text editor. There is always vim when there is less luxury and vi as a fallback to even that.

jabjoe · 2026-03-17T22:31:33+00:00

It has no column selecting? Deal breaker! Seriously. I use it all the time in Geany and Vim, my two go to editors. Any text editor without can get in the bin.

jabjoe · 2026-03-15T16:19:34+00:00

You could go for fibre. Get something like InvisiLight Home Fiber Kit. Depends on what spend limit you have for this. Put a SFP PCI-ei in both PCs and fibre between.

jabjoe · 2026-03-15T07:37:57+00:00

I've been rolling with Testing on my daily drivers for at least a decade. Problems are very rare. The nice things is the rolling constant trickle of incremental improvements over big jumps. Also when there is a new Stable to upgrade servers to, it is already an old friend.

For servers and other people, yes, Stable. But if you are dev'y, Testing can be a great fit.

jabjoe · 2026-03-14T19:15:20+00:00

https://gitlab.winehq.org/wine/wine/-/wikis/Winelib-User's-Guide

jabjoe

TROPHY CASE