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SubjectRe: Linux headed for disaster?
Chuck Mead <chuck@moongroup.com> wrote:

> Amen to Alan's comments but to Kendall... you've spanned the
> heights of incredibility here! You have Linux kernel source code
> which is freely available but you want the kernel folk to
> completely revamp their development program/path to suit your own
> needs?

Actually this is not the case. I will be building mechanisms to
support binary loadble drivers for our products into the Linux
kernels, and making those available as patches. I truly believe such
a mechanim will help make Linux a better OS, and I asked both Alan
and Linus whether they would accept support for this type of
mechanism if I created it and submitted the patches to them.

They flatly refused and said they would not support anything that
will allow for binary portable modules. So I will do this for our own
needs, but no-one else will benefit from this because it won't be a
part of the standard Linux distributions. I don't have any problem
developing and supporting this code for our own products, and I don't
expect anyone to write this code for me.

However I am upset by the notion that the GPL nature of the Linux
kernel source can and is being used to force hardware vendors to
release Open Sourcce drivers because they have no other option. Not
because another option is not feasible, but because the core
developers of Linux want to lock our proprietry solutions.

> Since you have such an excellent understanding of what needs to be
> done why not use the source and do it yourself... that would solve
> all of your problems!

I plan on doing just that. The problem is that my changes will never
be accepted into standard kernel distributions, because as Linus
said, doing so will enable hardware vendors to release binary-only
drivers if they wish.

So what? The whole thrust of my argument is that 3dfx and other
vendors will go Open Source because the benefits outweight the
pitfalls. I strongly believe that 3dfx and others will still do Open
Source drivers even if Linux did support a device driver model that
allowed binary only drivers.

Regards,

+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| SciTech Software - Building Truly Plug'n'Play Software! |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| Kendall Bennett | Email: KendallB@scitechsoft.com |
| Director of Engineering | Phone: (530) 894 8400 |
| SciTech Software, Inc. | Fax : (530) 894 9069 |
| 505 Wall Street | ftp : ftp.scitechsoft.com |
| Chico, CA 95928, USA | www : http://www.scitechsoft.com |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+


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