bullfrog

The ARM architecture seems to have a growing fan base. The Raspberry Pi and EOMA68 platforms are ARM based. There are even a few ARM based Arduinos floating around out there. The power, flexibility, and low cost of the ARM architecture, coupled with low energy dissipation, make it well suited to hacker/user friendly hardware platforms.

Several features of the Raspberry Pi especially, scream miniature BeBox. User programmable digital and analog I/O pins (think GeekPort,) and LED lights (das Blinkenlights) are a sure sign of this lineage.

The EOMA68 platform is a highly modular, open source hardware platform. It boasts an ecofriendly design concept where parts can be developed and 3d printed or otherwise made by users in the field. This opens up the possibility of locally recycled computers. Plastics can readily be reprocessed into injection molded parts and 3d printer filament by simple and inexpensive processes. This helps boost local economies while reducing our wastestream footprint.

These technologies are very in line with what I believe to be Haiku’s core principles that decended from Be Inc’s earlier philosophies that drew so many near and dear to the much beloved operating system. This is a sleek, efficient operating system that is both hacker and user friendly.

I’m not saying that the venerable x86 architecture should be abandoned just yet. I do think that supporting the ARM architecture would open up Haiku to the affordable hacker hardware of the future and present. This would help draw much needed development skills to Haiku.

1 reply

cosmogatokat

thanks!!! we need it! i need it for a orange pi at least.

FaBE

I have to Raspberry Pis (1 & 3) that are waiting to get Haiku installed.
I could help with some testing, but beware, I’m not a programmer.

Stacked_Lambda

And well in the spirit of the BeBox which was build around a RISC CPU!

Indirectly, an ARM port opens-up a possible future evolution of Haiku toward a tablet oriented implementation.

Just seeding the idea - for after R1!

2 replies

PulkoMandy Developer

I’m really not interested in that. What I like about Haiku is that it focuses on desktop computers. It is designed to be used efficiently with keyboard and mouse.

Look at what happened to GNOME when they tried to do both desktops and tablets. The result is clumsy on both.

If you are after a tablet oriented OS, I would say there is no use in carrying the BeOS legacy. But let’s see what Google is up to with Fuchsia/Magenta/Zircon, I suspect their plan is to go where Haiku doesn’t

1 reply