Am Dienstag, 21. Februar 2006 15:28 schrieb Joseph M. Gaffney: > On Tuesday 21 February 2006 08:56, Kenneth Schneider wrote: > > Fine. Then start writing all of the rest of the drivers that are non-gpl > > so that current and future users don't loose functionality and can use > > new and better hardware when it comes out. Keep in mind that perhaps > > over 95% of the users of linux distributions are -NOT- programmers. > > Oh and I -DO- appreciate all of your hard work. > > Perhaps it -IS- time to start looking at BSD. > > I find it amazing how so many out there feel its the responsibility of the > *kernel* developers to support so much hardware out of the box. > > Blame the companies, not the devs!!
We do normally, but the way this was communicated makes it sound like the LKD's don't care about their user base. The information that came out was that the change is immediate and they don't care if users machines suddenly stop working. I don't know if the manufacturers were given a realistic timescale to comply, what has been publicised is that the change takes place now and the manufacturers don't have time to respond and provide a replacement to the existing non-compliant drivers. THIS IS BAD PR, whether this is what has happened or whether this went on "behind closed doors" for several months and the developers have had a chance to react before this being announced... > So the kernel developers have decided they don't want binary drivers in the > kernel. Thats there decision. If you don't like it, add it in yourself. > Guess what - the company is still responsible for supporting its own > product! > > If they had any clue at all, they would work *with* the kernel developers > to be sure how to properly place the binary portions in userspace. > However, their complete lack of response on this list and others means they > just said GFY, in no uncertain terms. The problem is, from what has been communicated, they aren't being given time to work with the LKD's, the world has changed overnight, without warning... > These are the people you buy hardware from? These are the people you > defend? > > Buy hardware thats not only supported, but supported properly. Most of > all, get over yourself. You are a user, not a developer, and how you > (among others) have just reacted shows that you clearly don't appreciate > all the hard work the developers have put in. Being a developer, although not a Kernel Dev, I do understand what is involved... If the information had been released in a controlled manner with a decent explanation of what is happening and reassurances average Joe that his machines aren't suddenly going to stop working, I doubt we would be having these threads... And in some areas, there aren't any OSS drivers, or they don't fulfill standard requirements (E.g. OpenGL and dual-head for video cards). > Thank you for responding Carl-Daniel, I'm happy a kernel developer saw and > responded to that. Agreed. And keep up the good work, just get somebody to handle the PR for the LKD's, please ;-) -- "I got to go figure," the tenant said. "We all got to figure. There's some way to stop this. It's not like lightning or earthquakes. We've got a bad thing made by men, and by God that's something we can change." - The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
