[m0lecules]

100%

This is the next logical step for semiconductor companies like AD, TI, etc.

AD doesn't tend to compete on cost, so high quality open source drivers become a key differentiator compared to other companies with lower cost parts, especially as these parts become increasingly complex. A 9 axis IMU with 10 different acquisition and buffering modes, built in algorithms, etc. becomes a lot more tractable if you don't have to write the whole driver from a datasheet.

[stefan_]

Actually I think their plan is to continue not competing by acquiring all competition, as is now the norm in the semiconductor business. They call it "consolidation" but lets not mistake it for what it is.

[GhettoComputers]

Why are they doing Linux drivers then? They have to compete with international chips now.

[megous]

I randomly clicked through the list, out of 10 drivers, 3 were written by independent devs, 5 by comapnies they acquired, and the rest by AD.

This looks just like some list of existing drivers, regardless of who wrote them.

[rgetz]

Yes - the list on https://wiki.analog.com/linux is a consolidated list: - ADI devices (there is only one ADI, when a company is acquired, they are integrated - the group inside ADI that writes drivers doesn't care what the part prefix is) - internal ADI development and upstreamed/mainlined drivers that have been done by our customers / other contributors

It was done this way to try to make it easier for people to find the drivers, rather than rolling through kernel source. The Majority of the drivers are upstream (including the ones ADI writes), or are in process of going upstream, but some drivers - because of their development flow - will never meet upstream kernel coding guidelines.

[Disclaimer - I work at ADI].

[megous]

Perfect. :)

[shortsightedsid]

AFAIK TI has always been very opensource friendly. All their SOCs are mainlined and maintained including pretty old ones.

Now if Broadcom starts to be opensource friendly then that would be a real change of heart.

[mjevans]

I once tried to put OpenWRT on this nightmare... https://deviwiki.com/wiki/Actiontec_GT724WGR ; or maybe it was a very similar model; it was a long while ago.

The core SOC is a TI chip, but at least at the time while TI wasn't abhorrent, anything that might remotely help get the USB port working was a proprietary blob. I think they'd also sold the IP for that product to someone else by the time I was tinkering with it; I can't remember exactly but do recall it was either a nightmare or impossible to get a copy of the source code for the factory firmware.

This has turned me off to anything even using TI chips that I'm aware of. Maybe they've gotten better in the last decade. Probably they're fine if you're a hardware manufacturer paying for chips.