On 06/11/2014 03:09 PM, Chris Adams wrote:
Once upon a time, Przemek Klosowski <przemek.klosowski@nist.gov> said:
Fedora simply must support ARM because it ensures future viability.
The progress in ARM hardware platforms is amazing---ARM device sales
overtook x86 in 2010 [1] and of course the total number of ARM
processors in the wild exceeds x86 by orders of magnitude. Even if
we limit ourselves to 'computer' devices, ARM is significant and the
numbers can only change further in ARM's favor. Limiting Fedora to
x86 would condemn it to a relative or maybe even absolute gradual
decline.
As has been pointed out before, sheer cores sold is a meaningless thing.
MIPS and PPC outsold x86 before, and that obviously didn't condemn
Fedora to irrelevance.
Right, of course, and I tried to convey that it's only "computers" or "devices" that count. MIPS and PPC was never that successful for those, and ARM seems to be. I installed Linux on Android tablets, and it's useful, and will be even more useful when such devices start showing up in appliances. Android is great for a phone but not so great when you want a heavily customized system. By the way, I installed Debian because I had no idea how to start with Fedora, even though I know Fedora better and prefer it. My next project is a 7", $40 Aztek tablet: I will try to put Fedora on it!
How many ARM devices are supported by Fedora 20, as compared to the
number of x86 devices supported by Fedora 20?  The ARM market targeted
by Fedora is very small compared to the number of x86 machines that can
run F20.
That's a circular argument: few devices are supported because the support is weak.  I believe that ARM is worth supporting in the long run and Fedora ARM should at least catch up to and then exceed Debian.