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    SubjectRe: Free Linux Driver Development!
    On Tue, Jan 30, 2007 at 09:45:50AM -0800, Roland Dreier wrote:
    > > All that is needed is some kind of specification that describes how your
    > > device works, or the email address of an engineer that is willing to
    > > answer questions every once in a while. A few sample devices might be
    > > good to have so that debugging doesn't have to be done by email, but if
    > > necessary, that can be done.
    >
    > > This driver will work with all[1] of the different
    > > CPU types supported by Linux, the largest number of CPU types supported
    > > by any operating system ever before in the history of computing.
    >
    > > As for support, the driver will be supported through email by the
    > > original developers, when they can help out, and by the "enterprise"
    > > Linux distributors as part of their service agreements with their
    > > customers.
    >
    > I'm all for openness of device programming specs, but I think it's a
    > bit disingenous to suggest that all a company has to do to get a
    > driver written and supported is throw some documentation over the
    > wall. And it's crazy to suggest that the driver will work on every
    > platform and be supported by enterprise distros.

    Why is that crazy, we do that already today with the majority of drivers
    in Linux.

    > Just look at the in-tree drivers: there are tons of them that don't
    > work on big-endian platforms, or have 64-bit problems, or have no SMP
    > support. And that doesn't even count drivers that are so bitrotted
    > they won't even build any more.

    Like Jeff said, many of these are quite old.

    > And there are plenty of documented devices that no one cares enough
    > about to submit a driver for.

    Any specific examples? I have a long list of people who wish to write
    new drivers but just don't know which hardware is not yet supported.

    > In the real world, a vendor that wants to make sure a device is
    > supported by Linux had better pay someone to write the driver and keep
    > it working. Of course, if the device is popular enough or simple
    > enough, docs are all that's needed, but in many cases no one competent
    > to write the driver is going to volunteer to do it.

    That's not true at all. We have a whole raft of drivers in the kernel
    that are supported only by the community (like the whole USB stack for
    example) that vendors rely on working properly.

    And again, I have a whole list of people who are competent to write
    drivers wanting to do so (myself included), yet do not have any new
    devices with specs to do it.

    thanks,

    greg k-h
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