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Being honest with MODULE_LICENSEBeing honest with MODULE_LICENSEPosted May 10, 2004 17:30 UTC (Mon) by elanthis (guest, #6227)In reply to: Being honest with MODULE_LICENSE by rknop Parent article: Being honest with MODULE_LICENSE "There is a real danger of Linux working too cleanly and easily for the common user" That comment (yes, taken out of context) is pretty much exactly how many users, administrators, and developers already see Linux, thanks entirely the fact that it is already so hard to use proprietary drivers, and in fact even most Open Source drivers. The fact that any driver not distributed with the kernel itself is very difficult to use, thanks entirely to constantly changing ABI and API, makes it very difficult to just use new hardware. The only way to get things to work is to upgrade the kernel or the local driver source. Most Linux drivers aren't available separately from the kernel release cycle, so in fact your only option with Open Source drivers is to upgrade the kernel, re-apply any local patches, rebuilding initrd images, reinstall any proprietary drivers, update the boot loader, etc. Again, for absolutely no good reason. Using _any_ hardware, no matter the driver, is a pita on Linux, and will continue to be so until the kernel offers (at the very least) a stable API across the same release series (and preferably backwards compatibility across the major release serieis). A stable ABI would make life even easier. Again, this isn't just proprietary drivers, it's also affecting Open Source drivers.
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