Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1758662Ab0GBOBv (ORCPT ); Fri, 2 Jul 2010 10:01:51 -0400 Received: from mail-wy0-f174.google.com ([74.125.82.174]:63467 "EHLO mail-wy0-f174.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1757190Ab0GBOBt (ORCPT ); Fri, 2 Jul 2010 10:01:49 -0400 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=date:from:to:cc:subject:message-id:references:mime-version :content-type:content-disposition:in-reply-to:user-agent; b=tzZM7ze0Cp3jRldDXdM+vI9tgmbZeqMVNK9Jw+V/HfRRUJtjoVRoyB+BEGey+KfoPP 28brmJsalIPUxoOy0ylmn6ThuEyR4USuzjqWBU7zOzwQVWZv3PHMmm/4hnaJIhhFas9I 9v9RdxgqALDosHfDMJ9IUN06jlkxANEIEk4ko= Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2010 18:01:44 +0400 From: Anton Vorontsov To: Luc Verhaegen Cc: Dave Airlie , LKML , dri-devel Subject: Re: Closed source userspace graphics drivers with an open source kernel component Message-ID: <20100702140144.GA27618@oksana.dev.rtsoft.ru> References: <20100702095815.GA6802@skynet.be> <20100702111029.GB6802@skynet.be> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20100702111029.GB6802@skynet.be> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1904 Lines: 49 On Fri, Jul 02, 2010 at 01:10:29PM +0200, Luc Verhaegen wrote: [...] > > They'll keep shipping closed stuff, just like they are now. Are you > > going to reverse engineer the userspace drivers, so people who care > > about open and free software platforms can use these drivers? (or have > > you already signed NDAs saying you can't). Why should we maintain a > > bunch of kernel code, when they are hiding away all the really useful > > stuff that people could improve. > > Maintaining this exact code is not _your_ job, [...] Correct, it's not solely his job, but it's also every kernel developers' job. When I change kernel API I have to grep through all the kernel drivers, sometimes understand how they work, and then make the change to the whole kernel source tree. And I would not want to maintain this code, as these drivers are wasting my time without returning anything back. It was said many times. Actually, so many times that it started to become boring to repeat, and the Kernel Driver Statement was written: "We, the undersigned Linux kernel developers, consider any closed-source Linux kernel module or driver to be harmful and undesirable." http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/publications/kernel-driver-statement While the doc mostly says "kernel code", I truly believe that there's actually no huge difference between "closed-source kernel module" and "open source dummy kernel module + userspace blob". Both are closed source solutions, and generally useless for the open source. And, what is worse, the last one is harmful for me personally. -- Anton Vorontsov email: cbouatmailru@gmail.com irc://irc.freenode.net/bd2 -- 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/