Maybe a dumb question but how do non x86 boards normally boot Linux images in a generic way? When I was in the embedded space, our boards all relied on very specific device tree blobs. Is the same strategy used for these or does it use ACPI or something?
audidude · 4h ago
Red Hat announced RISC-V yesterday with RHEL 10. So this seems rather expected.
I understand why people use RH and Rocky and even Oracle: the rpm wranglers. However its not for me.
My earliest mainstream distro was RH when they did it just for fun (pre IBM) and then I slid slightly sideways towards Mandrake. I started off with Yggdrassil.
I have to do jobs involving RH and co and its just a bit of a pain dealing with elderly stuff. Tomcat ... OK you can have one from 1863. There is a really good security back port effort but why on earth start off with a kernel that is using a walking stick.
Perhaps I am being unkind but for me the RH efforts are (probably) very stable and a bit old.
It's not the distro itself either. The users seem to have snags with updating it.
I (very generally) find that RH shops are the worst at [redacted]
bigstrat2003 · 1h ago
> Tomcat ... OK you can have one from 1863. There is a really good security back port effort but why on earth start off with a kernel that is using a walking stick.
Because old software is battle-tested and reliable. Moreover, upgrading software is ever a pain so it's best to minimize how often you have to do it. With a support policy of 10 years, you just can't beat RHEL (and derivatives) for stability.
tanelpoder · 1h ago
Yep, when you have thousands of different production apps, installed and running directly on Linux - not talking about containers or microservices here - you’ll have very little appetite to upgrade all of them to the latest and shiniest technologies every couple of years. Stability & compatibility with existing skillsets is more important.
rubitxxx10 · 38m ago
I’m old. I used one of the original boxed RH distros. It was cool then. That was almost 30 years ago.
I know they give back to Linux, and I’m thankful for the enterprises that pay for it because of that.
It’s not a bad company, though it’s strange that you could be a great developer and lose your position there if your project gets cut, unless another team picks you up, from what I hear.
But when Linus created Linux, he didn’t do it for money, and RH just seems corporate to me like the Microsoft of Linux, way back before Microsoft had their own Linux. I want my Linux free-range not cooped.
They don’t do anything wrong. They just don’t give the vibe. Anyone asking for money for it doesn’t “get it” to me.
copperx · 1h ago
I have to confess that my early experiences with RedHat as a teenager and dealing with the nightmareish RPM dependencies soured me from the distribution. I went to Debian and then its many descendants and never looked back; APT seemed magical in comparison.
I assume they have a package manager that resolves dependencies well now? Is that what an RPM wrangler is?
bigfatkitten · 38m ago
rpm dependencies has been a solved problem with yum (and now dnf) for about two decades.
dgfitz · 2h ago
I’d rather use redhat than Ubuntu. I was handed a machine the other week with Ubuntu 23.10 on it, OS supplied from a vendor with extensive customization. Apt was dead. Fuck that. At least RH doesn’t kill their repos.
gerdesj · 2h ago
I've got Ubuntu 22.04 lying around that still update because they are LTS. Ubuntu has a well publicised policy for releases and you will have obviously read them.
Try do-release-upgrade.
You also mention "OS supplied from a vendor with extensive customization. Apt was dead."
How on earth is that Ubuntu's problem?
hshdhdhj4444 · 38m ago
Isn’t Ubuntu basically killing apt?
My Ubuntu became unusable because it kept insisting on installing a snap version of Firefox breaking a whole bunch of workflows.
I do want to try a RH based OS (maybe Fedora) so they don’t keep changing things on me, but just where I am in life right now I don’t have the time/energy to do so, so for now I’m relying on my Mac.
Hopefully I can try a new Linux distro in a few months, because I can’t figure it out yet, but something about macOS simply doesn’t work for me from a getting work done perspective.
nine_k · 26m ago
I've heard many good things about Pop OS. It's like Ubuntu done right, and it does have an apt package for Firefox.
(I run Void myself, and stay merrily away from all these complications.)
mulmen · 24m ago
I have been using Fedora Sway as my desktop operating system for a couple years now and I am very happy. It’s definitely worth a try. I have access to flatpak when I need it for apps like steam but the system is still managed by rpm/dnf. There’s of course some SELinux pain but that’s typically my fault for holding it wrong. Overall very impressed.
arminiusreturns · 3h ago
I'm so looking forward to a RISC future!
agarren · 2h ago
Ditto! I haven’t found any hardware that’s daily-driver ready, but I keep looking.
I especially like the idea of getting a framework version in this case I want to swap in a different mainboard. By their own admission, the risc-v board is targeting developers and not ready for prime time. Also coming from the US, not sure how the tariff thing will workout…
mrbluecoat · 3h ago
Better title: Rocky Linux 10 Will Support Two RISC-V Boards
NewJazz · 2h ago
For a distro,just building packages for an architecture is notable support-wise. Those with custom firmware and kernels can pair them with the rocky 10 userspace.
rjsw · 2h ago
They could easily support the Pine64 Star64 board as well, the VisionFive2 build of u-boot works on the Star64 too.
nine_k · 3h ago
Even to support one board, they'd need the whole build / testing infrastructure for RISC-V. Likely adding more boards is booing to be easy now, and any architecture-specific regressions, easier to spot and fix timely.
rob_c · 2h ago
Even better title: Rocky will take the RHEL work and rebrand and sell the boards at a discount from China and claim a win and that they're being attacked by IBM.
https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/red-hat-partners-with-sifive-...
My earliest mainstream distro was RH when they did it just for fun (pre IBM) and then I slid slightly sideways towards Mandrake. I started off with Yggdrassil.
I have to do jobs involving RH and co and its just a bit of a pain dealing with elderly stuff. Tomcat ... OK you can have one from 1863. There is a really good security back port effort but why on earth start off with a kernel that is using a walking stick.
Perhaps I am being unkind but for me the RH efforts are (probably) very stable and a bit old.
It's not the distro itself either. The users seem to have snags with updating it.
I (very generally) find that RH shops are the worst at [redacted]
Because old software is battle-tested and reliable. Moreover, upgrading software is ever a pain so it's best to minimize how often you have to do it. With a support policy of 10 years, you just can't beat RHEL (and derivatives) for stability.
I know they give back to Linux, and I’m thankful for the enterprises that pay for it because of that.
It’s not a bad company, though it’s strange that you could be a great developer and lose your position there if your project gets cut, unless another team picks you up, from what I hear.
But when Linus created Linux, he didn’t do it for money, and RH just seems corporate to me like the Microsoft of Linux, way back before Microsoft had their own Linux. I want my Linux free-range not cooped.
They don’t do anything wrong. They just don’t give the vibe. Anyone asking for money for it doesn’t “get it” to me.
I assume they have a package manager that resolves dependencies well now? Is that what an RPM wrangler is?
Try do-release-upgrade.
You also mention "OS supplied from a vendor with extensive customization. Apt was dead."
How on earth is that Ubuntu's problem?
My Ubuntu became unusable because it kept insisting on installing a snap version of Firefox breaking a whole bunch of workflows.
I do want to try a RH based OS (maybe Fedora) so they don’t keep changing things on me, but just where I am in life right now I don’t have the time/energy to do so, so for now I’m relying on my Mac.
Hopefully I can try a new Linux distro in a few months, because I can’t figure it out yet, but something about macOS simply doesn’t work for me from a getting work done perspective.
(I run Void myself, and stay merrily away from all these complications.)
https://store.deepcomputing.io/products/dc-roma-ai-pc-risc-v...
I especially like the idea of getting a framework version in this case I want to swap in a different mainboard. By their own admission, the risc-v board is targeting developers and not ready for prime time. Also coming from the US, not sure how the tariff thing will workout…