Even other open devices (Firefox phone, Ubuntu Edge) will suffer this fate - they all, AFAIK, will require proprietary blob drivers for the GPU.
Intel provides FOSS graphics drivers [1]. I'm not sure though whether they do mobile graphics cards with free software drivers, too.
Re:Android AOSP maintainer quits
by rincebrain on Wednesday August 07, 2013 @04:42PM
(#6175480)
Depends what you mean by "mobile".
The non-Atom chips usually have real Open GPU drivers that work the same as the desktop ones; the Atom chips [AFAIK] are the ones that primarily suffer from being PowerVR-licensed things with badly half-working "open" drivers.
Not all Atom chips have PowerVR graphics, though AFAIK all the phone and tablet Atoms do.
I think the issue here is that Qualcomm won't even allow AOSP to distribute the binary blobs.
There's no point being the maintainer of an Operating System that can't boot to the home screen on its flagship device for lack of GPU support, especially when I'm getting the blame for something that I don't have authority to fix myself and that I had anticipated and escalated more than 6 months ahead.
So much for all that noise from Google about 'openness'. The detractors were right.