Re: Linux on the O2

["Greg Chesson" <greg@xtp.engr.sgi.com>]

I've been reading the O2 thread with great interest.

It seems to me that a "vanilla" port of Linux on the O2 is quite feasible.
Several writers have agreed.

But full support in Linux for extremem platform-dependent multimedia
hardware is problematic.  This has also been mentioned by several writers,
some of whom developed the OS code.  The problems are twofold: it would
be a non-trivial task even with full documentation to provide complete
support for O2 hardware since the job would require as much new invention
as it would require porting, and second- full disclosure
of the inner workings is viewed as too much of a giveaway to present
and future competitors.

Makes me wonder whether the Indy port of Linux could be ratcheted into
a vanilla port for the O2, and then perhaps SGI could produce binary
loadable drivers for the missing bits.

g