On Thu, Jul 28, 2005 at 06:12:55PM -0500, Shawn Walker wrote: > The point is if a driver exists that can be integrated, but has a > required binary only component due to legal or other restrictions and > that is the only way that hardware will work, then to me and many > others it is perfectly acceptable. This binary only component could be
Obviously this is something people will disagree on. It's pretty easy to argue that the binary-only component isn't open in any meaningful sense; it can't be modified and it isn't a source of information. At the moment, some of them are needed to do useful and important things with OpenSolaris sources; perhaps that makes them part of OpenSolaris - which seems to be your position; perhaps it makes them second-class OpenSolaris adjuncts - which seems to be Roy's position (and in fact is mine as well). The difference seems solely semantic from where I stand, and whatever you call them, they need to be replaced as quickly as possible. > a rom that has to be loaded into flash memory, special software to > initialize a device, or perhaps a TV-Out enabler. I don't expect 3rd > party binary-only-in-every-single-way drivers to be integrated into > the official OpenSolaris project since they're owned by a third party. Yep. > However, I do expect drivers that are open except for one component or > set of components needed to initialize the hardware or otherwise > provide legally restricted functionality to be given the option of > being included. Wi-Fi drivers are one of many very good examples. And that's something we're talking about right now. For example, it seems to me that firmware is fair game for delivery in binary form; I don't likely have a compiler or assembler for it anyway and although I might like to change it there's no real argument that it's part of the operating system or even of the driver; it's equivalent to delivering code in a ROM, which is part of the device. Of course, if you wanted to claim that your hardware's implementation is open source, you'd need to deliver that in source form. Anyway, I'd be thrilled - ecstatic, really - if we could move all hardware vendors to this position. Far too many pretend that the address of the register you diddle to start DMA is some kind of valuable secret. > At the very least, it must be very easy for a user to install binary > drivers, and not have to worry about recompiling their kernel or any > of the other dreck that certain unnamed open source projects make > their users go through. And on that we all (I'd hope) agree - and this is one of the benefits of offering a stable DDI. Another, even more important one (to me personally, not necessarily to Sun) is that it makes maintaining open source drivers easier too! -- Keith M Wesolowski "Sir, we're surrounded!" Solaris Kernel Team "Excellent; we can attack in any direction!" _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list opensolaris-discuss@opensolaris.org
