Return-path: Received: from an-out-0708.google.com ([209.85.132.242]:17218 "EHLO an-out-0708.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751920AbYGaRT5 (ORCPT ); Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:19:57 -0400 Received: by an-out-0708.google.com with SMTP id d40so104088and.103 for ; Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:19:56 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <43e72e890807311019x1c4baa43t622c776999bec152@mail.gmail.com> (sfid-20080731_192000_915447_2F5961A5) Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:19:56 -0700 From: "Luis R. Rodriguez" To: "Johannes Berg" Subject: Re: Vendor support stickers for devices supported under Linux wireless Cc: drago01 , "linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org" In-Reply-To: <1217524322.10489.148.camel@johannes.berg> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 References: <43e72e890807301327j54be2453r836964c708d75458@mail.gmail.com> <43e72e890807301358r6d8cadc1j4f40b501319fb7dc@mail.gmail.com> <1217498887.10489.138.camel@johannes.berg> <43e72e890807311005l3fd7823ej68497586ec9ff6bc@mail.gmail.com> <1217524322.10489.148.camel@johannes.berg> Sender: linux-wireless-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 10:12 AM, Johannes Berg wrote: > On Thu, 2008-07-31 at 10:05 -0700, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote: > >> > I would also add to the contract a requirement to offer Linux support >> > for, say, the next five years. >> >> Not sure if we should call it a contract unless its understood its an >> informal contract with the community. > > There has to be some form of contract. The logo is copyrighted, > obviously, so there has to be a contract for you to be allowed to print > it on a box. Heh, Whatever makes the copyright holders happy :) I suspect the copyright holder are after the community's best interests anyway. >> Also I don't think we should be >> specific about a time frame for support -- its difficult enough to get >> the driver upstream, not that its not possible I just think it we >> should strive to at least get vendors to properly support Linux by >> submitting their drivers for upstream into Linus' tree. Support tends >> to come naturally after that :) > > Because sometimes there are users who care. I think though that the > vendor should participate in future development by testing and fixing > their driver, for at least a period of time. Five years may be too much, > given the current chip livetime maybe one or two would make sense, > kernel releases are only roughly every three months. > > Mind you, I wasn't talking about user support, but rather development > support, kinda like a SUPPORTED tag in the MAINTAINERS file. This seems reasonable. Luis