GNU + Linux = broken development model [LWN.net]

GNU + Linux = broken development model

Posted Jul 30, 2009 14:46 UTC (Thu) by Richard_DCS (guest, #56565)
In reply to: GNU + Linux = broken development model by mikov
Parent article: A tempest in a tty pot

This sounds like a nice theory though I've seen lots of counter examples, so I don't think it works.

Also you miss the point that most users are making the transition from 9x to XP 32bit and then onto Windows 7 64bit in the future. That path stops drivers working on every transition, Linux never had that problem.

Drivers work best when they are open source and in the mainline kernel where they can be fixed when needed.

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GNU + Linux = broken development model

Posted Jul 30, 2009 16:52 UTC (Thu) by mikov (subscriber, #33179) [Link]

No, no, no. I have been talking about source level API, not ABI! This is about developers, not users.

I don't expect the same binary to literally work between all Windows or Linux versions (although in many cases it does, but I don't view that as necessary or even useful).

Plus, I am not disputing the usefullness of open source at all. After all, that's a big part of why I am using Linux. I am just saying that a stable kernel API would make life easier for most developers and businesses.

We should take the good stuff from Windows (stable API), improve it (make it source-only instead of binary ABI) and apply it to Linux.

GNU + Linux = broken development model

Posted Aug 1, 2009 23:06 UTC (Sat) by Lumag (subscriber, #22579) [Link]

We should take the good stuff from Windows (stable API), improve it (make it source-only instead of binary ABI) and apply it to Linux.

We?.. "Show us your code." I mean if you want stable API in some area, you can try working with developers in that area by providing patches that ensure backwards compatibility, etc. Unless you do that, all this talk is no sense. Sorry :)