> There's a standard API implemented by Linux for the firmware to communicate this to the kernel, also PCI works on ARM just like x86. No one bothers with this because all of the popular ARM SoCs tend to come from organizations that are extremely hostile to their users though.
That's the problem. Most SoC vendors just don't care and implement drivers in or around forks of the kernel, and also specify the hardware via device trees. IIRC having the firmware give the device tree to the kernel instead of it being baked into the kernel is a new development.
If MS came and said: we want stable interfaces, the vendors would buckle and MS would be able to ship one OS image to all devices, instead of having hw custom images.
That's the problem. Most SoC vendors just don't care and implement drivers in or around forks of the kernel, and also specify the hardware via device trees. IIRC having the firmware give the device tree to the kernel instead of it being baked into the kernel is a new development.
If MS came and said: we want stable interfaces, the vendors would buckle and MS would be able to ship one OS image to all devices, instead of having hw custom images.