In article <cistron.38D114B2.1AC4D6BA@Morris.net>,
Jim Morris <Jim@Morris.net> wrote:
>Donald Becker wrote:
>The architectural changes to the drivers that Linus is insisting on mean
>that I have to have completely different drivers for 2.0.xx, 2.2.xx or
>the later 2.3/2.4 kernels. That's a problem, because most driver
>maintainers are only going to keep the source for the latest kernel up
>to date, while many Linux users in the real world may not be upgrading
>to 2.4 for a long time to come. Basically though, if I add a new
>network card to a system running those older versions of Linux, or run
>into a bug in the drivers I am using, I am left out in the cold, unless
>I want to hack the drivers myself, or do a massive upgrade of the
>system.
As long as 2.2 is maintained, it's OK. You don't expect to get
new drivers for your network card for BSD 4.3 (tahoe) either do you.
Or do you upgrade those 4 year old systems to todays hardware
and expect to still be able to run a 2-3 year old kernel on them
that supports all modern hardware ?
>I hate the fact that lately, it seems the attitude of Linux kernel
>development has seemed to be "screw the stable kernel tree". Too many
>driver fixes, etc, make it into the 2.3.xx kernel, and not into the
>2.2.xx source, I think. I have yet to see a good solid explanation for
>breaking driver compatibility between 2.2 and 2.3.
You MUST be kidding. Most new drivers first appear in 2.2.XpreY,
then in 2.2.X, and only then in 2.3.Z. In fact that amazes me a
lot - I thought it would be the other way around.
One of Alans jobs for 2.4 is merging the 2.2.X fixes and drivers !
Mike.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Mar 23 2000 - 21:00:19 EST