Modern processor support

I don't think it will be on the scale of making a new graphics chipset work - simply because Intel would be willing to keep their hardware specifications open to all. It would do them no good to close the specifications and reduce their market to "windows only" like graphics manufacturers choose to do.

Once good reference implementations of these new features for Linux/BSD are available, I suspect someone will bring the technology over to BeOS/Haiku in the form of drivers, etc. - but only if there is a real demand.

You're likely to run into most of your issues getting the video/sound/network chipsets working properly - so that's what you should concentrate on when reviewing hardware specifications.

BTW, If I get what you're saying, you want a notebook to replace your current desktop system? Meh.

Okay, your choice. For almost 4 years I've had a notebook as well, but given the choice I'd always use a desktop system. I personally can't stand the smaller, less vibrant displays, their fixed position, the inferior keyboards, lack of upgradability, self-servicability etc.

Notebooks look sleek at your local electronics store, but if you don't actually need the mobility (i.e. DTR notebooks), they're ultimately the worse option, IMO.

I agree with you, my situation is exactly the same. Take a desktop anyday. But, as I believe someone pointed out above, notebooks outsold desktops this year. If we want Haiku to be taken seriously, and used by lots of people, ignoring support for Notebook hardware isn't an option.

I have faith that Haiku will properly support newer hardware - eventually.

To suggest a "solution" to your problem - maybe you can invest in a good used laptop - I hate laptops, but lately people have been basically "giving" them to me - either because they're either "broken" (one needed a new HD) or in trade for some computer work (and the laptop needed an OS reinstall anyway).

It's a lot cheaper that way, and you can feel better knowing that the hardware is most likely supported on your favorite OS already :)

We're not. Axel has support for just about any x86 processor you can think of. Ingo is also working on a PPC port, so most of it is already there. Dual core chips are pretty darn new tech, so I'm pretty sure that they're not supported... yet. The SMP support in the kernel is there, but I'm not sure of its status - Axel would know better. In short, processors are one thing that all the major technologies will eventually be supported (dual core, HyperThreading, etc).

--DarkWyrm

I'd say that if we have to worry about supporting anything, it's all about the drivers. I honestly don't know where BeOS would be if it weren't for Rudolf Cornelissen and Thomas Kurschel. Between those two guys, we have drivers for most of the major video cards out there. The only problem with drivers is it takes good documentation -- which many companies are reluctant to provide -- lots of experience, or something in-between. For an applications programmer like myself with little experience in writing drivers and little background knowledge, writing drivers seems like a black art. The nice part is that between R5 and Zeta, it shouldn't be too hard to have someone write drivers right now which run on Haiku.

It's important to note that due to the need for "backward compatibility" (mostly with Windows) - processors must remain capable of running 32-bit x86 code for many years to come. New features of the processor must continue to function on "legacy" OSes with no additional support - and are usually enabled via drivers, or new OS functionality.

Processor companies have tried to "separate" their new processors from the previous generations with lackluster results (Pentium Pro comes to mind - and x64 hasn't had a stellar takeoff yet)

Most CPU patches out there (like the BeOS Athlon patch for example) simply disable features of the processor that are incompatible with the OS.