But what about commercial Hardware and Software Vendors [LWN.net]

But what about commercial Hardware and Software Vendors

Posted Jun 21, 2007 9:54 UTC (Thu) by MalcYates (guest, #45868)
Parent article: Long-term support and backport risk

There is no view here of how any changes in the delivery of backports can affect the development and support of commercial applications that rely on stability of interfaces.

It is fine to discuss the ramifications for Linux development, but there is a whole eco system out there that use the kernal interfaces to deliver their solutions ( any virtualisation vendor for instance ...)

If Linux is to keep its advantages of stability etc, then this is a big consideration.

It is fine for us to rip and replace a kernel once a year, but that means all software and hardware certification would need to be revisited / retested / recertified, and that is not a cheap procedure for the vendors.

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But what about commercial Hardware and Software Vendors

Posted Jun 21, 2007 10:32 UTC (Thu) by michaeljt (subscriber, #39183) [Link]

If those people are targeting more than a single distribution, then distribution kernels with thousands of backports can make their lives harder, not easier. It means that there is yet another kernel to support, possibly with major differences to the upstream one.