On Tuesday 24 January 2006 02:43, Bill Unruh wrote: > On Tue, 24 Jan 2006, Hemmann, Volker Armin wrote: > > On Tuesday 24 January 2006 02:15, Sergei Steshenko wrote: > >> " > >> The Linux developers DO NOT WANT to make it possible to write closed > >> source drivers. Many consider it a violation of the GPL. > >> " > >> > >> - GPL allows to run commercial closed source programs under a > >> GPL'ed OS. That is, it doesn't prohibit this. > > > > no, but it prohibits you from incorporating gpl'ed code into closed > > source programms. > > ... > > >> Likewise, closed source drivers can be implemented as separate > >> processes not linked to GPL kernel an thus not violating GPL. > > > > so why has no one done it so far? > > > > The userland ABI and API has been stable the last ten years. > > > > You can take a binary, compiled on a computer using kernel 2.0.X and run > > it on 2.6.X > > > > You may need some glibc-wrapper, but that is not the kernels fault. > > > > So if you want to implement a driver that is completly independent from > > the kernel, lives in userspace, does not use GPL code in any form and is > > closed source, do it. Noone will hinder you in doing that. > > But if you are using GPL-code, you have to open it. > > ??? Noone is talking about a driver using GPL code. The question is how one > can have drivers which talk directly to the hardware and link into the > kernel. The code inside the driver need not use any GPL code.
oh, and suddenly you want to link into the kernel? I thought, we were talking about userspace? btw, X11 was able to talk to hardware without any kernel-drivers. > > > the sense of reality says them, that it is stupid to have fix internal > > api&abis, because they get into the way of efficient bug fixing and > > development. > > They also introduce bugs. and they fix them. Every piece of software has bugs. Some yoears ago, there was a nice article in Scientific America, about bugs in software. They used a mathematical proof to show, that it is not possible to write bugfree non-trivial software. And because of bugs, it is important to fix them. What do you do, when you find a bug in the 'holy' internal abi, that should not change? Add one wrapper after the other? You can see the unholy mess of drivers, when you try and install windows. You HAVE to install the mainboard driver first - and please, be sure that not one driver of the previous hardware is left - best to do is reinstallation, than you have to install the rest of the drivers in a certain sequence or you can start again. I surf enough forums, where I can see the daily carnage. Where computers are totally unusable, because the user forgot to deinstall some driver before removing the hardware, or did use the wrong driver (windows own driver instead the one from the vendors homepage), or just did not installed the drivers in the right order. I am glad, that linux is much more userfriendly. New graphic-card? I did not have to change anything or have to change one(!) line in xorg.conf. New sound-card? make modules modules_install and modprobe the drivers. No reboot, nothing. New mainboard? The old kernel boots perfectly, but sadly I need a different network driver. No problem. Make the module, modprobe it. That is easy. ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Do you grep through log files for problems? Stop! Download the new AJAX search engine that makes searching your log files as easy as surfing the web. DOWNLOAD SPLUNK! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=103432&bid=230486&dat=121642 _______________________________________________ Alsa-user mailing list Alsa-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-user
