Re: Linux headed for disaster?

Martin Dalecki (dalecki@cs.net.pl)
Wed, 08 Dec 1999 01:33:46 +0100

sergey@memco.com wrote:
>
> Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> on 12/05/99 01:17:00 PM
>
> To: KendallB@scitechsoft.com (Kendall Bennett)
> cc: linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu (bcc: Sergey Tsybanov/San Jose/Memco
> Software)
>
> Subject: Re: Linux headed for disaster?
>
> Alan Cox wrote:
>
> >Not really. The binary format is dependant on compiler, architecture, SMPness
> >and a dozen other things. The source is not.
>
> Well, normally kernel should not depend on SMPness ( Solaris or Sequent
> DYNIX/PTX).
> Also if we are talking about hardware drivers then where is dependence on
> architecture by definition because hardware usally depends on architecture.
> And there is the problem here. Interface between hardware and software is part
> of
> intellectual property. Some vendors don't want to share it with competitors.
> To design a good interface is much harder than to implement an existing one.
> The ind. binary format is a way to magnet such vendors. BTW Do we have a
> statistics
> how many vendors really wrote their drivers for Linux and public these source
> codes ?
> And how many did not ?

Binary only drivers can be reengineder by disassembling them. And they
are
not a prerequsite for keeping the real intrinsics closed. One could as
well
write the driver in such a kind of C (possibly automatically generated
:-)
That it could as well be quite comparable to some kind of assembler.
(function names like f0001(x,y,z) and such...). This would still leave
the
possiblity to fix some basic minor kernel interface issues on demand.

> >Binary compatibility killed windows
> >Windows 98 could have been a much nicer OS without back compatibility. I see
> >no reason to kill Linux by re-enacting proprietary OS history with a free
> >OS.
>
> Well, windows is still alive B-). I have been looking a TV by using
> a Matrox Marvel TV on Win 98. When Matrox would write a driver for LINUX ?
> The answer is NEVER B-(((. And I did not hear about a publication of full
> specification of that card ( May be I am not right here ).
>
> > Alan
> Sergey
>
> -
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--
	Marcin Dalecki


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