> "At the same time I do think kids, hobbiests, small startups, and people who can’t afford expensive computers will make use of RISCV on commoditized programmable logic chips like FPGAs."
No, they won't. By definition, FPGAs always give you less performance per dollar than custom silicon. If they can't afford an expensive computer, then FPGAs and the tooling to use them is even more out of reach by a long way.
By the working analogy here, Linux is also at a disadvantage because it doesn’t run the majority of commercially supported consumer software yet many people still use it. It has shown that people are willing to choose free options even if it’s technically less advanced than closed options. A fully featured de10-nano board costs ~$150 [1] so it’s readily accessible, at least in comparison to desktop pcs.
Steam's system survey shows Linux desktop usage at ~0.85% and general consumer surveys show less than 3% usage even after thirty years of development and that is in spite the fact that it costs nothing. Moreover, a $45 Raspberry Pi 4 costing a third as much will have vastly better performance as a desktop than any logic it's possible to fit on the DE10 board costing $150 that was mentioned. The examples provided therefore demonstrate the exact opposite of the points you are trying to make.
<=1% usage does not contradict any of the points I made. I never claimed >1% of people would make the freedom over convenience trade off, just that there exists people who would and it would be important to them.
I don’t see anywhere near 1% of people running a RISC-V softcore based computer on a de10-nano board but I would and many other hackers like me would.
No, they won't. By definition, FPGAs always give you less performance per dollar than custom silicon. If they can't afford an expensive computer, then FPGAs and the tooling to use them is even more out of reach by a long way.