Slashdot Mirror
Linux Kernel 4.8 Adds Microsoft Surface 3 Support (betanews.com)
Brian Fagioli, writing for BetaNews:If you are a Windows user, and want a really great computer, you should consider Microsoft's Surface line. Not only do they serve as wonderful tablets, but with the keyboard attachment, they can be solid laptops too. While many Linux users dislike Microsoft, some of them undoubtedly envy Windows hardware. While it is possible to run Linux distros on some Surface tablets, not everything will work flawlessly. Today, release candidate 1 of Linux Kernel 4.8 is announced, and it seems a particularly interesting driver has been added -- the Surface 3 touchscreen controller. "This seems to be building up to be one of the bigger releases lately, but let's see how it all ends up. The merge window has been fairly normal, although the patch itself looks somewhat unusual: over 20 percent of the patch is documentation updates, due to conversion of the drm and media documentation from docbook to the Sphinx doc format. There are other doc updates, but that's the big bulk of it," says Linus Torvalds, Linux creator. Will Microsoft's lower-priced (starting at $499) hybrid computer become the ultimate mobile Linux machine?
most touchpads running linux can easily handle the touchscreen using synaptics drivers in userland that have existed for 10 years now...theyre just considered a mouse..why did this need kernel support? what does the support add thats specifically meaningful?
and FWIW the problem getting Linux onto surface isnt the drivers, its getting around the fucking DRM. Everything is signed, the UEFI is locked down, and TPM does its due diligence in ensuring you never get to run anything but windows.
Good people go to bed earlier.
I like the surface, but this is as much as a slashvertisement as I have ever seen.
This is interesting.
When I first got my MacBook Pro, I read several articles about how well Windows ran on it once you installed the BootCamp drivers. Back then, the MacBook Pro was arguably the best hardware out there, with a retina display, multi-touch touchpad, and with current processors.
Contrast with today, where Apple has not refreshed the hardware for some time, and are letting OSX seem to rot in place. Now, the best hardware arguably comes from Microsoft, and people are hard at work making sure Linux runs well on it.
Strange times indeed... What's next?
Why comment on this? Who gives a shit? It is a single line of an article summary, which is just a quote of TFA itself. Why draw more attention to what is little more than just an opinion on "a really great computer"? I really don't understand why some slashdotters take time out of their day to complain about this. I mean, if something that could be called "advertising" offends you, why not just ignore it? Why let it bother you so much?
Because they feel that if they let it pass without comment, then it will move the bar of what's acceptable, which will cause more of that sort of thing in the future. It's the "first they came for the Communists, and I said nothing because I wasn't a Communist" argument.
Whether that attitude is justified, or whether complaining about it will actually have any effect, are separate questions.
Oh I wish i had a Zune. Or perhaps a no compromise surface tablet; perhaps one running RT. No problem - i'll just order one using my Nokia windows mobile phone with almost no market share. I'll be quite the envy of every developer out there.
Slashvertisement aside, the fact that the Linux kernel is adding drivers that enable specific support for a Microsoft tablet is pretty damn significant news.
The remainder of the updates are either incremental or simply merging in something that has existed for a long time outside of the mainline kernel. Like whoop-de-do we now have RPi3 SoC support as if that didn't exist the day the RPi3 hit the shelves through the various official and unofficial distros.
Only because it mentions something positive about a device that was made by a company Slashdot tends to hate.
"Science is the power of man"