Re: Driver Model 2 Proposal - Linux Kernel Performance v Usability

From: Jamie Lokier (jamie_at_shareable.org)
Date: 09/05/03

  • Next message: Gustav Petersson: "Re: Driver Model 2 Proposal - Linux Kernel Performance v Usability" 
    Date:	Thu, 4 Sep 2003 23:19:24 +0100
To: James Clark <jimwclark@ntlworld.com>

    James Clark wrote:
    > Why would binary drivers be any harder to debug than the existing binary
    > kernel. If you want to debug something use the source code. My proposal
    > doesn't remove the need for quality public source code but it does isolate
    > the kernel components and allow for 'plugin' use on different kernels both
    > old and new.

    Your first statement doesn't make sense.

    We don't debug binary kernels by themselves - we debug them with source.

    Binary drivers that come without source are almost impossible to debug.

    If we can't debug the drivers, we'll soon have a Linux community
    that's full of broken drivers.

    If broken binary-only drivers becomes significant for many users,
    Linux will become much less fun - and it may harm its adoption and
    improvment.

    Some would say the problem of binary-only drivers is already
    significantly harming the development process: think of the people
    running 2.4-only drivers who cannot be involved in 2.6 testing or
    development.

    Also the rate at which new open source drivers are produced will
    decrease, because there will be less useful source for authors to
    learn from.

    -- Jamie
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  • Next message: Gustav Petersson: "Re: Driver Model 2 Proposal - Linux Kernel Performance v Usability"

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