FOSS will be fine because software has won. Open hardware is only feasible again because architecture doesn’t fucking matter. Is there a half-decent compiler? You’re golden, everything will work.
The 1980s had a dozen competitive architectures because a computer was a silo. Programs were solipsistic, networks barely existed, and it took very few companies to make a platform viable. If you had a spreadsheet you were in business and every game was uniquely ugly.
The 1990s saw x86 swallow everything. People expected the programs they already knew to run faster every year. Two companies delivered on that, with a third company lording over both of them, because everything past the CPU was still a bit-banging nightmare.
The 2000s killed consoles and nobody noticed. RenderWare let every platform run the same games the same way - even Macs! - and it turns out devs like reaching customers. The two brands of video card and the two brands of driver got stuck in a loop until graphics were just… code.
The 2010s made that code low-level, but it needed to work for different hardware, so virtualization, recompilation, intermediate formats, yadda yadda yadda. Inscrutable software for drivers that were mostly compilers. Or at least linkers. Android programs went basically the same way, even though ARM gradually swallowed everything.
The 2020s have a Valve-branded Linux / x86 device running Windows games, effortlessly… and if you jump through hoops then your Android / ARM phone can do the same. There is no secret sauce, anymore. Every game is on every platform worth reaching unless bribed into monogamy. Monster Hunter Wilds should probably run on whichever smartphone you own currently, but for some obscure details that one hyperfixated dork could unravel.
RISC-V’s expansion won’t need to worry about native software because there is no such thing. The only remaining difference is that proprietary code runs worse on fewer machines.
FOSS will be fine because software has won. Open hardware is only feasible again because architecture doesn’t fucking matter. Is there a half-decent compiler? You’re golden, everything will work.
The 1980s had a dozen competitive architectures because a computer was a silo. Programs were solipsistic, networks barely existed, and it took very few companies to make a platform viable. If you had a spreadsheet you were in business and every game was uniquely ugly.
The 1990s saw x86 swallow everything. People expected the programs they already knew to run faster every year. Two companies delivered on that, with a third company lording over both of them, because everything past the CPU was still a bit-banging nightmare.
The 2000s killed consoles and nobody noticed. RenderWare let every platform run the same games the same way - even Macs! - and it turns out devs like reaching customers. The two brands of video card and the two brands of driver got stuck in a loop until graphics were just… code.
The 2010s made that code low-level, but it needed to work for different hardware, so virtualization, recompilation, intermediate formats, yadda yadda yadda. Inscrutable software for drivers that were mostly compilers. Or at least linkers. Android programs went basically the same way, even though ARM gradually swallowed everything.
The 2020s have a Valve-branded Linux / x86 device running Windows games, effortlessly… and if you jump through hoops then your Android / ARM phone can do the same. There is no secret sauce, anymore. Every game is on every platform worth reaching unless bribed into monogamy. Monster Hunter Wilds should probably run on whichever smartphone you own currently, but for some obscure details that one hyperfixated dork could unravel.
RISC-V’s expansion won’t need to worry about native software because there is no such thing. The only remaining difference is that proprietary code runs worse on fewer machines.