Messages in this thread | | | From | "H. Peter Anvin" <> | Subject | Re: Aunt Tillie builds a kernel (was Re: ISA hardware discovery -- the elegant solution) | Date | 14 Jan 2002 16:46:50 -0800 |
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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> - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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