Messages in this thread | | | Date | Mon, 06 Dec 1999 14:40:17 +0000 | From | Steve Underwood <> | Subject | Re: Linux headed for disaster? |
| |
Alan Cox wrote:
> > What I am trying to get across is that binary portable modules help > > to solve driver compatibility problems when you do new releases of > > the Linux kernel. I am not trying to say that the source code should > > be closed. Obviously the Open Source nature of the NCR 5380 driver is > > what allows it to continue to be supported. > > I've been helping maintain the Linux kernel for six or seven years. I don't > believe a word of your claim. Things like vmware are a problem, the et inc > modules were a problem, oss has its problems. And thats despite the fact > OSS especially, and also to an extent ET worked hard on chasing bugs
NT is a stinker. There is no question about that, except in the MS marketing dept. It does get a worse press than it deserves, though. I would guess that something like 90% of all BSOD and registry scrambling incidents are due to iffy third party drivers. The S3 ViRGE NT driver is a true stinker, that causes endless trouble with scrambled machines, and that was the market leader in its hay day. Binary only drivers a PITA with all OSes, open source or otherwise.
For balance, MS joins in the fun. Their IDE driver bombs the OS on a range of disk faults, so one dead drive, or a dead element in a software RAID set, results in a BSOD.
Steve
- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
| |