Why should I use obsolete hardware? [LWN.net]

Why should I use obsolete hardware?

Posted Feb 16, 2009 15:05 UTC (Mon) by khim (subscriber, #9252)
In reply to: Yearly driver updates? Is this a joke? by ballombe
Parent article: Debian 5.0 released

Do not use new hardwares if you want a stable system. New hardwares do not have stable and well-tested drivers.

With Debian you often don't have any drivers at all. Basically the story goes like this: I'm buying system for 2-3 years. Of course when I buy it I prefer to use most recent hardware (it increases longevity of the system). And yes, I do know hardware support will be flacky for a time. But when I find out that both Ubuntu and Fedora support my ThinkPad T500 just fine while brand-spanking-new Debian does not (and there are no promises about support in near future and I not even with "I know what I'm doing" option) it's just indescribable...

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Why should I use obsolete hardware?

Posted Feb 16, 2009 15:15 UTC (Mon) by mjthayer (guest, #39183) [Link] (1 responses)

This is more a consequence of the kernel developer's policy of tying drivers to kernel versions, so that you can't use new drivers with old kernels without lots of (dangerous) backporting work. Debian understandably want to offer well-tested kernels, and due to this policy they can't offer more recent drivers for hardware which has no others available.

Note that this comment is not intended to condone or to condemn this policy, merely to draw the connection with Debian's hardware support.

Why should I use obsolete hardware?

Posted Feb 18, 2009 21:18 UTC (Wed) by jwarnica (subscriber, #27492) [Link]

Yeah. But Debian is, for all practical purposes, incapable of changing how the kernel development cycle happens.

It would be like building a roof, that leaks, and then telling your customers "Hey, I don't control the universe, I didn't make it rain."