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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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How is RISC-V better than arm for Linux? (programming.dev)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Help me understand this better.

From what I have read online, since arm just licenses their ISA and each vendor's CPU design can differ vastly from one another unlike x86 which is standard and only between amd and Intel. So the Linux support is hit or miss for arm CPUs and is dependent on vendor.

How is RISC-V better at this?. Now since it is open source, there may not be even some standard ISA like arm-v8. Isn't it even fragmented and harder to support all different type CPUs?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

USENIX ATC '21/OSDI '21 Joint Keynote Address-It's Time for Operating Systems to Rediscover Hardware

Timothy Roscoe, ETH Zurich

https://youtu.be/36myc8wQhLo

At 19:22

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

examples he gives are what you'd expect:

Linux doesnt control the bootloader
Linux doesn't control power management

Many systems on the chip that Linux doesn't have control over, and could be compromised by a cross SoC attack

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Thank you for pulling the image out.

This talk surprised me at the time. I was starting the eye opening experience of design hardware. Linux more orchestrates the hardware than controlling it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

For me it opened my eyes to the idea that all you really need is some CPU time and a little RAM space to have a full-fledged performative system. Sure, there will be a large attack vector for remote spying, but if you just want to code and play games then it's pretty amazing how little you need :-)