[gentoo-user] Re: {OT} Will ARM take over the world?

[Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@gmail.com>]

On 2012-12-10, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 10 Dec 2012 19:06:36 +0000 (UTC)
> Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On 2012-12-10, Volker Armin Hemmann <volkerarmin@googlemail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > Am Samstag, 8. Dezember 2012, 19:25:55 schrieb Grant:
>> >
>> >> It seems like ARM processors will destroy x86 before too long.
>> >> Does anyone think this won't happen?
>> >
>> > no
>> >
>> > two reasons:
>> >
>> > not enough power
>> > does not run x86 software
>> >
>> > the second one is a real deal breaker.
>> 
>> Only until somebody invents some sort of scheme where you can write a
>> program using a source language that isn't tied directly to the
>> processor architecture.  Then you'd be able to build programs (or even
>> OS kernels) so that they'd run on a variety of CPU architectures!
>
> We can do that *already*
>
> java
> perl
> python
> dotnet
> and any number of other languages compiled to bytecode. There's too
> many to list.

I know. :)  

And even if you stick with old-school compiled languages to C,
supporting multiple architectures isn't any more difficult than
supporting the plethora of x86-based motherboards and chipsets.

  * Apple transitioned from 68K to PPC to x86 without much problem,
    and they don't seem to have any problem getting software to run on
    ARM devices.

  * Linux is available for non x86 platforms. :)

Nobody has developed significant applications in assembly language for
decades, so I don't see why there's a requirement to "run x86
software"...

I use a couple of large, commerical Java apps under Linux and they
both work great.  OTOH, some of the smaller "free" Java apps I've
tried were pretty bad...

-- 
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