[PLUG] Dell Inspiron 1420N...

Paul Mullen pm at nellump.net
Sat Aug 11 06:53:00 UTC 2007


On Fri, Aug 10, 2007 at 11:36:08PM -0700, John Jason Jordan wrote:
> I don't get this. I can understand philosophical issues with closed
> source drivers, but if there is an open source Linux driver for the
> device, why is it not available on all distros? I guess I don't
> understand how device drivers work.

Most distributions have their own set of patches that they pick and
choose from various sources, and then apply to the kernel tree before
building it and sending it out into the wild. (Opinions vary as to
whether or not this is a good idea.) It's quite possible that
Distribution A might have patched in a driver that's not yet included
in the mainline kernel tree, while Distribution B didn't bother.

-- 
Paul



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