The interface IS the source code [LWN.net]

The interface IS the source code

Posted Apr 20, 2006 14:17 UTC (Thu) by rknop (guest, #66)
In reply to: The interface IS the source code by elanthis
Parent article: Some notes on Linux and free drivers

You are wrong -- it DOES solve the problem, at least some of the problems.

A year from now, when all (or most) of the distributions have done new releases, that hardware *will be* supported. Two years from now, it will be supported. But will it be supported if you have to rely on getting binary-only drivers from a vendor? Likely not; the kernel will have changed, and the old driver won't work.

It's ESSENTIAL to get your drivers into the mainline kernel if you few your hardware as anything other than a flash-in-the-pan, not to be used on Linux distributions that were released after six months after the release of the hardware device.

And a workaround to the problem you mention can go with in-kernel drivers. Redhat used to have their secondary archive of "addons". You can make packages for popular distros, or make source packages available, with added kernel drivers. After a few months, when a new distro release comes, everything will get simpler. This happened with the ipw2200 drivers (although we still need an annoying firmware blob... grrr).

Very few traditional vendors realize that the free software/open source development model is fundamentally *different*. A stable kernel API for low-level things like drivers really *is* less crucial, because the *right way* to do things is for everything in the kernel to be free, and thus integratable into the main kernel. They have all lived in the MIcrosoft world where they can list which versions are supported, and write drivers for those-- well, Linux just doesn't work that way, and the fact that proprietary vendors have always worked that way does NOT mean that it's the only way one can work. And, the Linux way really is better when it comes to older hardware-- the drivers generally do stay along and get updated for newer releases, whereas with vendor-supplied binary drivers, you have to count on enough backwards compatability, or the vendor releasing a new driver.

-Rob

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