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by nexthash 1395 days ago
You come up on your niche, and then when you have access to the broader market, you pivot to the group that will help you grow market power [1]. Similar dynamics exist in a lot of different ecosystems, and Pine seems to be responding to the challenges that have come with becoming big. It's sad that they won't be supporting OS hackers anymore, but they have to pivot if they want to bring onboard more customers (which seems to be the goal behind this decision).

[1] https://www.cgpgrey.com/blog/rules-for-rulers
1 comments
CivBase 1395 days ago
Can you really consider the "mass market" to be a key to power for Pine64 with their current lineup of products, though? The OS hackers seem to be Pine64's only key to power right now. And does supporting them really consume extra resources that could otherwise be better allocated?
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zozbot234 1395 days ago
> Can you really consider the "mass market" to be a key to power for Pine64

Not as long as they ship Manjaro as the default OS for their hardware. Rolling-release distributions are not fit for mass-market use.

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nexthash 1395 days ago
My guess is that OS hackers could be considered as one niche, while hackers and builders who prefer not going through a custom Linux install/config for their project (i.e., a weather station or a mobile smart home dashboard) could be a larger one. Definitely not "mass market" or replacing Android levels, but at the same time a significantly larger portion of revenue for Pine64. The switch to Manjaro would provide them with a key backer that allows them to unlock this market. People have been discussing the software quality of Manjaro, so maybe it has a good foundation or connections?

Also: I've seen some hidden costs of supporting custom OS installs being discussed, i.e. procuring extra chips to allow open boot. This may have factored into Pine64's decision.

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detaro 1395 days ago
> while hackers and builders who prefer not going through a custom Linux install/config for their project

That's a false dichotomy, nobody is demanding that users be forced through "custom Linux install" (whatever that means). The problem is also not primarily that Pine64 have chosen a "flagship" distro, but how they and said distro behave towards the other options. I'm sure the quality of the flagship distro is massively improved by making life hard for the project that did useless things like making the camera in the phone work...

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