On 21 Mar 2006 at 15:23, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger wrote:
Johannes Kastl schrieb:
On 02/14/2006 02:26 PM Eberhard Moenkeberg wrote:
I must say, this decision is a punch in the face for companies, that have linux drivers. Those that dont care about linux wont have a problem with this decision.
This decision is no problem for companies supporting linux (they have free drivers). It is, however, indeed a big problem for companies trying to profit from linux and giving nothing back in return.
I disagree: developing a driver for Linux is a significant amount of work, and you get something (the driver). You don't get the sources, but you didn't pay for. I'm sure you could get the sources if you are paying for them.
Using closed source linux drivers or windows drivers with ndiswrapper is similar. In both cases, the kernel becomes tainted and the result is not debuggable. However, companies creating closed source linux drivers claim to support linux. I fail to understand how they can make that claim.
I'm happy that Windows Vista will force most drivers into userspace, thereby invalidating all claims that it can't be done.
Is it really user space, or is it a different ring of protection? [...] Regards, Ulrich