On Mon, Sep 27, 2021 at 11:18 AM Alan Perry via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> > On Sep 27, 2021, at 07:07, Joshua Rice via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> > wrote: > > > > Obviously, there's more hardware platforms that support Linux (like the > RPi and other ARM boards) > > Doesn’t this have the relationship between the OS and the hardware > platform backwards? > When there is no relationship between the hardware and OS teams (i.e. the OS team chooses to adopt the hardware on their own) you can say the OS is adding support for that hardware platform. But more often than not, OS support is a big part of selling hardware. You seriously reduce your potential sales if your hardware doesn't run a popular operating system, and to ensure that your operating system(s) of choice will run on your hardware, you pay your own developers to do the port(s). At that point, it is very much a case of the hardware platforms supporting an OS. This is especially true when other operating system developers find themselves unable to support your hardware because the needed documentation isn't available. The situation is similar with add-on hardware that requires device drivers. If the documentation needed to write a device driver is unavailable, and the only available drivers came from the hardware maker, then it is definitely a case of the hardware maker supporting the OS. -ken