[PLUG] Re: Open source drivers and patents (2)

[Galen Seitz]

Keith Lofstrom <keithl at kl-ic.com> wrote:

> Like you, I dislike binary drivers.  I dislike them because the
> Kernel Gods, in their Infinite Wisdom, have decided that binary 
> drivers are a Bad Thing.  They do not provide a common API that
> allows one binary driver to work with all kernels, or two drivers
> that work with all 2.4 and 2.6 kernels, say.  That would not be
> impossible or even difficult, and it might in fact make the kernel
> more robust.  But it is Politically Incorrect, because it is Not GPL. 
> This is, IMHO, an example of the Linux community shooting itself
> in the foot.  And I take some responsibility for that, because it
> would not be difficult to fork the kernel just slightly, and
> maintain a few glue routines that provide an interface for standard
> binary drivers, and compile those routines into the kernels from
> the main tree.  I have not helped make this happen.  Mea Culpa.

I think you are underestimating the difficulting of doing this.

"You think you want a stable kernel interface, but you really do not,
and you don't even know it." -- GKH

http://www.kroah.com/log/linux/stable_api_nonsense.html


galen