Is it possible to install OS and then drivers in ARM system like in Desktops?

Question

Is it possible to download a standard OS disc image from a site and install the OS and then drivers for the system in an ARM based system like in Desktop/Laptop?

Answer 1

EDIT: 2013-10-31: The question has been edited significantly, but I'll leave the old answer below.

Yes. It is possible. Raspberry Pi - an ARM-based system - has become somewhat mainstream and encouraged development of several official and unofficial ARM ports of popular linux distributions which can be run on many ARM-based platforms. However, that's not new - Linux and BSD have been running on ARM for a long time and the projects I link below are all fairly mature - they predate RasbPi.

With a little bit of work (As is normal for Linux) You can get these running on a Raspberry Pi, PandaBoard, or other ARM-based system. There are even tutorials for making them run on devices made for Android!

• Arch Linux ARM
• Ubuntu ARM for desktop/server and Ubuntu Phone for smartphones
• Debian ARM
• Fedora ARM

You're not even limited to Linux! FreeBSD and other BSD-based OSes can be run on ARM systems.

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The old answer

As comments have already pointed out, there are a few misconceptions and false assumptions at play here. I'll try to clarify what I can. I apologize if this seems harsh, and am more than open to editing anything to make it softer or more supportive.

1. You say that in an Intel or AMD system you have the freedom to install any OS - implying that you don't have this freedom on an ARM-based architecture.

   This isn't due to any "closed" aspect of ARM, or even because of any "open" aspect of x86 or x86-64. The only reason that Windows, Linux, OSX, etc are all commonly run on x86 hardware is because that's the choice that the software developers made. There are many operating systems that can't run on x86, just like the non-RT version of Windows doesn't run on ARM. There's no CPU kingpin here trying to restrict our freedom.

2. You mentioned that OS setups are a standardized procedure and cite Microsoft and Canonical, and that with ARM we are "at the mercy of hardware manufacturer for updates". This is also a false assumption, and there are many points to be made to clarify this:

   Canonical makes a version of Ubuntu for ARM, which can be installed on a LOT of ARM-based hardware.

   x86 OSes have wildly varying install processes. Try installing Debian or Arch Linux. (Debian and Arch are also available for ARM, by the way)

   Updates for software always come from software providers. If your hardware provider is also your software provider, then it comes from the same source. Example: Verizon's Droids. Google makes the software, but Verizon and Motorola are the software providers here. They own the licenses for drivers and firmware that are needed for the phone - and they aren't letting Google or anyone else use it. This has nothing to do with ARM.

3. You mentioned CyanogenMod as something that's designed for a specific device. Again, this isn't because of ARM. Each cell phone that CyanogenMod maintains a release for is wildly different - they use different processor architectures, they have different hardware, different cell radios, different screens, different bluetooth chips, wifi chips, etc. ARM is at the core of these devices, but it's not the reason CyanogenMod can't just be universal.

4. You mention that the OS of smartphones is installed in the "ROM" of the device, but Windows is installed in Internal Storage. In truth, Android is installed in internal storage just like Windows - it is installed physically on internal storage, and is not Read-Only as you seem to be understanding it. There may be a mount point called "Internal Storage", but that's just a partition label or the name of a directory - it's not separate physically from the NAND that the OS is installed on.