HEAR! HEAR!!

RISC-V designs are still 3 or 4 years off the pace, but closing fast.

The leap ought to come when the extensions that were ratified at the end of 2021 are realised… 2025/2026.

It would mean the diminishing of market share of proprietary US software and hardware.

Linux and *BSD run on RISC-V. RISC-V devices will be shipped with an open source OS and apps. Android users won’t even notice / care about what chip is inside their tech.

And it puts app lock-in to the test.

• BRICS nations are going RISC-V - for varied reasons - as quickly as they can (and the EU may well follow suit).

• China is a huge producer - if not THE biggest manufacturer - of electronics.

Those two points alone suggest a RISC-V revolution, in BRICS and 3rd-World economies, who like cheaper goods. RISC-V cores have been used in microcontroller roles for a while now, and we’re now seeing RISC-V chips being used as primary processors.

Sorry. Can’t help you there.

How far down the rabbit hole do you want to go?

RISC-V is open specification for processor design, and some Cpus, like T-Head’s C910 are published designs. The Roma laptop uses a SoC based on that, though I don’t suppose it’s readily available. There’s also an SBC - the Lichee Pi 4A, and a tablet from Sipeed… But all these devices are cutting edge, and probably not for the general consumer quite yet.

There’s Armbian for x86… https://www.armbian.com/uefi-x86/

Element is also available through a browser. https://app.element.io/#/welcome

If it’s 32-bit, your options dwindle somewhat.

Armbian is lightweight, and has an x86 version.

Some while ago, there was a “Masto Blue” generated from Mastodon users fa ourite colours - #40665C

deleted by creator

Not common, perhaps, but I like to download Atkinson Hyperlegible.

Which, I guess, shows they have a significant amount of meta data about users. :/

But couldn’t that be got around with a vpn or Tor?

“WhatsApp and Signal have both threatened to quit the UK market over this demand.”

I’m curious - how would that be done in practice?

And wouldn’t it just mean that people would adopt another protocol, like Tox or Matrix, in stead?

https://www.howtogeek.com/348699/how-to-see-what-data-windows-10-is-sending-to-microsoft/

The most popular Western OS (and probably the other commercial OSs too) sends every key typed back to base. Plus every website visited. Plus every document amended.

Apologies - my memory doesn’t always serve me well. But didn’t Micro$oft bring a copyright lawsuit against a Linux distro… was it Canonical?

I remain really excited about RISC-V, and am delighted to see more performant SBCs becoming available. The Sipeed board in particular, since it comes with Debian already flashed, means that RISC-V is on the cusp of the consumer market.

I was delighted that Debian has started work on making RISC-V an official ISA.

And I’m following Marius’ work with great interest - Lomiri on Debian makes a lot of sense to me.

So… The prospect of Lomiri on Debian on RISC-V - a real goal.

Does the research presume the use of a qwerty keyboard?