Messages in this thread | | | Date | Fri, 19 Aug 2011 12:53:30 +0100 | Subject | Re: ARM promising platform, needs to learn from PC. | From | Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <> |
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> I'm suggesting splitting out the crazy part into a separate project > that does this. Open-source. Like a mini-kernel.
linus, i'm surprised, shocked even! are you seriously proposing that the linux kernel be split into two, ooo, i dunno... something along the lines of a core and an OSKit v2.0? the last time OSKit was created it didn't go down too well :) but seriously: yes, i also came up with this idea, and, whilst it sounds like a great idea in principle, it is merely "moving the problem".
likewise with any other ideas such as allowing the linux kernel to be a userspace application (running under L4KA or other microkernel).
so i think you'll find that whilst such ideas are great in principle, they merely solve _your_ stress levels, not anyone else's :)
> Because the thing is, > the main kernel doesn't care, and _shouldn't_ care. Those board files > are just noise.
yes, and they're necessary. they link everything together, for the actual real-world manufacturer shipping the real-world customised one-of-a-kind mass-volume product, of which there are merely many many thousands if not millions of units sold.
yes, it initially sounded like i was arguing "in favour" of those... noisy-board-files, but you can see - if you read to the end of the sentence - i'm most certainly not.
this is where the "selfish patch is out, collaborative patches are in" rule would come into play.
under the proposed rule, such board files would *not* qualify.
however, if that board file was for a device that was part of a collaboration (such as: it was for the pandaboard, IMX53QSB, or its hardware CAD/CAM files were available under an OSI-Approved License), i would argue that it *should* qualify.
i've listed examples of each, in the FAQ.
it would be good to be able to clearly link each concrete example to a real-world case where linux developers have clearly gone "argggh!", to evaluate how effective the proposed "selfish is out, collaboration is in" rule would be.
l.
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