Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S265097AbUD3QGG (ORCPT ); Fri, 30 Apr 2004 12:06:06 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S265096AbUD3QGG (ORCPT ); Fri, 30 Apr 2004 12:06:06 -0400 Received: from kinesis.swishmail.com ([209.10.110.86]:59663 "EHLO kinesis.swishmail.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S265097AbUD3QGC (ORCPT ); Fri, 30 Apr 2004 12:06:02 -0400 Message-ID: <40927A86.30207@techsource.com> Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 12:10:46 -0400 From: Timothy Miller MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Peter Williams CC: Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz , Marc Boucher , Sean Estabrooks , Linus Torvalds , Paul Wagland , Rik van Riel , koke@sindominio.net, Rusty Russell , lkml - Kernel Mailing List , David Gibson Subject: Re: [PATCH] Blacklist binary-only modules lying about their license References: <20040429195553.4fba0da7.seanlkml@rogers.com> <3A39091E-9A4C-11D8-B83D-000A95BCAC26@linuxant.com> <200404300618.37718.bzolnier@elka.pw.edu.pl> <4091D6D4.8070507@aurema.com> In-Reply-To: <4091D6D4.8070507@aurema.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1517 Lines: 38 Peter Williams wrote: >> "DriverLoader technology is the ideal Linux solution to support >> devices for >> which no adequate native open-source drivers are available. It also >> allows >> vendors to drastically reduce time to market or eliminate the need to >> support >> multiple drivers for Windows and Linux. By using the same driver on both >> platforms, significant resources can be saved." >> >> Rusty was right. > > > Why did you omit the next paragraph (which completes the story): > > "We have attempted to reduce the inconvenience of binary-only drivers by > separating the proprietary code from the operating-system specific code. > The latter is provided in source form, allowing users to install the > drivers under any supported version (2.4 or later) of the Linux kernel." While it does allow for Linux to get certain kinds of drivers quicker, it turns hardware developers into slackers who don't want to REALLY support Linux and eats away at the spirit of Linux as an open system. What you're doing may short-term enhance hardware support for Linux, but in the long term, it is a set-back for Linux because it does not encourage hardware vendors to support Linux directly and even pushes true Linux support further into the future. - 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/