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    SubjectRe: Aunt Tillie builds a kernel (was Re: ISA hardware discovery -- the elegant solution)
    Date
    Followup to:  <20020115080218.7709cef7.bruce@ask.ne.jp>
    By author: Bruce Harada <bruce@ask.ne.jp>
    In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel
    >
    > On Mon, 14 Jan 2002 17:34:23 -0500
    > "Eric S. Raymond" <esr@thyrsus.com> wrote:
    >
    > > Therefore I try to stay focused on Aunt Tillie even though I know
    > > that you are objectively correct and her class of user is likely
    > > not to build kernels regularly for some years yet.
    >
    > Change that last line to read "her class of user will never build kernels ever,
    > and would be aggressively disinterested in the possibility of doing so", and
    > you might be closer to the truth.
    >
    > Aunt Tillie just DOESN'T CARE, OK? She can talk to her vendor if she gets
    > worried about whether her kernel supports the Flangelistic2000 SuperDoodad.
    >

    I would make this an even stronger statement:

    We (yes, we) should make sure Aunt Tillie doesn't ever have to build a
    kernel, ever. If we have designed our kernels so that:

    a) A distributor needs more than a handful of kernels (UP, SMP,
    SMP+PAE, perhaps CMOV or not) on their install CD, or;

    b) It's not possible to add a driver without rebuilding the kernel, or;

    c) It's not possible to autodetect the module set needed AT RUNTIME;

    then we have screwed up. Kernel compile autoconfiguration is a red
    herring in that respect; I would argue if anything it hides the real
    issue. We're currently crappy at both (b) and (c) -- a monolithic
    kernel does (c) a lot better, and that is quite frankly unacceptable.

    -hpa
    --
    <hpa@transmeta.com> at work, <hpa@zytor.com> in private!
    "Unix gives you enough rope to shoot yourself in the foot."
    http://www.zytor.com/~hpa/puzzle.txt <amsp@zytor.com>
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