I'm happy to see vendors paying attention to having working graphics hardware.
It's really sad how "you can actually use the 3D functionality in the chip" is a selling point that differentiates these small ARM boards. OpenGL ES 2.0 will be 10 years old next year. There's no excuse to not have a working implementation of it accessible.
Imagine if you had to shop around to find a PC where the GPU actually worked without crashing (ODROID XU4 fails, Google "black screen bug"). Or if being able to play high-definition video was something you couldn't rely on, despite the hardware being there (again, ODROID XU4 fails). Or if the 64-bit mode fully implemented in silicon was inaccessible in practice without losing other hardware functionality (Raspberry Pi 3). This is sadly the situation we're in with these ARM boards, and I don't see it improving unless we demand working drivers.
It's really sad how "you can actually use the 3D functionality in the chip" is a selling point that differentiates these small ARM boards. OpenGL ES 2.0 will be 10 years old next year. There's no excuse to not have a working implementation of it accessible.
Imagine if you had to shop around to find a PC where the GPU actually worked without crashing (ODROID XU4 fails, Google "black screen bug"). Or if being able to play high-definition video was something you couldn't rely on, despite the hardware being there (again, ODROID XU4 fails). Or if the 64-bit mode fully implemented in silicon was inaccessible in practice without losing other hardware functionality (Raspberry Pi 3). This is sadly the situation we're in with these ARM boards, and I don't see it improving unless we demand working drivers.