Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S932431AbZJ0VQW (ORCPT ); Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:16:22 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S932312AbZJ0VQU (ORCPT ); Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:16:20 -0400 Received: from charlotte.tuxdriver.com ([70.61.120.58]:40861 "EHLO smtp.tuxdriver.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S932391AbZJ0VQS (ORCPT ); Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:16:18 -0400 Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:13:29 -0400 From: "John W. Linville" To: david@lang.hm Cc: Greg KH , Pavel Machek , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/4] strip: move driver to staging Message-ID: <20091027211329.GH15566@tuxdriver.com> References: <1256015830-12700-1-git-send-email-linville@tuxdriver.com> <20091023161006.GA1580@ucw.cz> <20091026165518.GE2792@tuxdriver.com> <20091026184734.GA21591@suse.de> <20091027140812.GC17208@suse.de> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.19 (2009-01-05) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1294 Lines: 27 On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 11:39:54AM -0700, david@lang.hm wrote: > while I definantly agree that this driver is unlikly to have many users, > unless it is known broken (which David Miller has stated that it is, but > had not been mentioned previously in this thread), how can you know that > the number of users has dropped below 1? You are free to disagree, but IMHO these devices are so unlikely to still be in use that the burden of proof of whether or not the driver works lies upon a forthcoming user. Further, such a user needs to be at least willing to test patches and probably needs to be in a position to analyze most "normal" problems that might materialize. IOW, such a user needs to be a de facto maintainer. Blindly holding onto a driver not which not only has no known users but which is believed to have no users at all merely because we can't _prove_ it is broken is just a waste of resources. John -- John W. Linville Someday the world will need a hero, and you linville@tuxdriver.com might be all we have. Be ready. -- 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/