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SubjectRe: What's wrong with IDE patch and what proper solution should be...
On Sun, 23 Jul 2000, Paul Barton-Davis wrote:

>>I'm not so sure. What about CD-R, scanners, video and so on ? Do we REALLY
>>need drivers for all this stuff in kernel ? Perhaps. But IF it's true then
>>proper way to fix problem is to REMOVE "raw IDE I/O" and "raw SCSI I/O"
>>interfaces from kernel and replace it with drivers for ALL possible IDE
>>and SCSI device. EVEN if it's "way to go(tm)" (I'm not so sure it is) we
>>can not do it for 2.4 anyway.
>
>Yikes! This way lies madness (at least for SCSI). Removing the
>equivalent of the sg interfaces would reduce Linux to a platform much
>like Windows where every single new SCSI device probably needs to
>provide its own kernel modifications/modules/driver to allow
>device-specific apps to talk to it.
>
>Right now, you can write (for example) an Iomega Jaz utility without
>any kernel futzing at all. Contrast this with Windows where it seems
>necessary to always install a new driver.
>
>Don't go there.

Part of the kernel's JOB is to arbitrate hardware access. If we
extend your argument, we take out all hardware drivers and
replace them with userland applications and libraries. Then we
end up with MSDOS.



--
Mike A. Harris Linux advocate
Computer Consultant GNU advocate
Capslock Consulting Open Source advocate

... Our continuing mission: To seek out knowledge of C, to explore
strange UNIX commands, and to boldly code where no one has man page 4.


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