Re:VIA launches $49 Android PC
by rogerbinns on Wednesday May 23, 2012 @02:37PM
(#4014588)
The "user programs" you want to run are determined by the operating system. And the operating system is determined by blobs, controllers, BIOS and similar gunk.
If for example the Pi blob is such that Linux kernel 3.7 can't run then you are SOL. Or if on a device like this their blob only works with Android 2.3 then you can't run a different version. Or maybe you can't run one of the BSDs.
The video/GPU is especially relevant in the Pi case because it controls what the CPU can do.
Re:VIA launches $49 Android PC
by excuse-me on Wednesday May 23, 2012 @03:58PM
(#4015010)
Yes that's true - I was thinking of people who complain they don't have details for some deep detail of the GPU shader cores to write an opensource driver for their NVidia card.
If for example the Pi blob is such that Linux kernel 3.7 can't run then you are SOL. Or if on a device like this their blob only works with Android 2.3 then you can't run a different version. Or maybe you can't run one of the BSDs.
The video/GPU is especially relevant in the Pi case because it controls what the CPU can do.