The interface IS the source code
Posted Apr 20, 2006 16:05 UTC (Thu) by
cventers (subscriber, #31465)
In reply to:
The interface IS the source code by elanthis
Parent article:
Some notes on Linux and free drivers
I invite advocates of the stable API theory to
read /usr/src/linux/Documentation/stable_api_nonsense.txt. I understand
that your scenario regarding distributions is a problem; the difference
is that it's actually not a kernel developer problem at all.
The problem kernel people have with a "stable API" isn't that they are
somehow lazy -- the problem is that a stable API flies in the face of the
agility of kernel development. This agility means that I can walk into
LKML, identify a bad design, propose a better design, and then in one
sweeping series of patches, replace the entire mechanism. It keeps the
kernel from getting cruft.
If you have a stable API, the time is soon going to come where it gets in
the way. Then you have a driver author hacking around the stable API,
because that's the way to talk to the kernel. And then you have the
subsystem maintainer hacking around the stable API, cause that's the way
to talk to the driver.
So you end up with crufty code talking to crufty code over a rickety old
bridge.
The correct answer is for the distributions to either accept the
responsibility of backporting important modules (because the reality is
often that while the api is not stable, it doesn't change *dramatically*
often enough that backporting would really be a huge effort), or,
alternatively, offer up-to-date kernel packages that users can accept
under a 'beta' headline in order to support their new hardware.
People say the bleeding edge kernels are buggy and unstable. Of course,
something that just hits the road is going to naturally have some
problems. But I've been on the bleeding edge for a long time, and rarely
has it led to any kind of problems whatsoever. In years of using Linux on
servers and desktops, I've never seen the kernel actually crash on me,
with the exception of one time when I had failing RAM. The reality is
that most desktop users that use bleeding edge hardware can probably get
by just fine on bleeding edge kernels, if only the distributions would
step up and accept responsibility of delivering them to their users in a
useable way.
(
Log in to post comments)
