I’m sorry if this sounds like a stupid question but why won’t android just straight up run like Linux distros that almost run on any computer? Why does each model under each manufacturers require separate maintainors seperately? Aren’t they running like almost similar hardware like processors from Qualcomm, mediatek, Exynos, etc? Why hasn’t there been a single android os that is compatible with all the device?
PC architecture is very standardized. ARM is like the wild West where nothing is standard. Everything needs specialized drivers that need to be compiled along with the operating system in order to even work.
Out of curiosity, is this something that RISC-V does better, or are they going down the same path as ARM?
The issue is not the instruction set of the processors. That’s actually quite well standardised with ARM (albeit unfree) and there is plenty of generic support for it because of that.
The issue is all the “peripheral” devices such as WiFi, WWAN, display etc. that are wired up in extremely bespoke device-specific ways. They are usually implemented in vendor kernels with millions of lines of divergence to mainline at best and/or proprietary blobs at worst.
Changing the ISA from one well-supported closed standard to a less well-supported open one will not change that issue one bit.
I’m not as familiar with RISC, but my gut tells me that’s it’s a similar situation to ARM. Take that as you will.
Most RISCV boards don’t support BIOS/UEFI AFAIK
RISC-V may only be better in the sense that it’s an open, transparent framework. But I would expect a lot of “Embrace, Extend, Extinguish” behavior from any larger manufacturers in the market.