Binary-only kernel modules may be banned [LWN.net]

Binary-only kernel modules may be banned

Posted Dec 14, 2006 8:48 UTC (Thu) by kune (subscriber, #172)
In reply to: Binary-only kernel modules may be banned by einstein
Parent article: Binary-only kernel modules may be banned

I don't think that the Linux community is to blame for the situation. It's pretty damn hard to write a driver for a complex hardware, for which you don't have access to the hardware developers. Even if you have some documentation and source code available, it's incomplete, might have errors and doesn't tell you about hardware bugs. It's pretty difficult if you know that hundreds of registers are filled with some values and you have no bloody idea, what the function of 95% of those registers are.

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Binary-only kernel modules may be banned

Posted Dec 14, 2006 9:50 UTC (Thu) by seyman (subscriber, #1172) [Link]

> I don't think that the Linux community is to blame for the situation.

It's interesting to note the blame-shifting that occurs where NVidia's binary video drivers are concerned.

- The free drivers suck. This apparently isn't NVidia's fault (which is strange since they maintain it) but the kernel developers'.
- The non-free drivers aren't free. This apparently isn't NVidia's fault.
- This makes the drivers impossible to ship as part of the distribution. This is somehow the distribution's fault.
- They won't release the specs. This apparently isn't their fault.
- They badmouth the open source developement model. I have no idea why but this isn't their fault.

There has got to be a reason for the amount of support NVidia gets from their linux user crowd but I can't see it.