Re: Linux headed for disaster?

Steve Underwood (steveu@infowebtelecom.com)
Mon, 06 Dec 1999 14:40:17 +0000


Alan Cox wrote:

> > What I am trying to get across is that binary portable modules help
> > to solve driver compatibility problems when you do new releases of
> > the Linux kernel. I am not trying to say that the source code should
> > be closed. Obviously the Open Source nature of the NCR 5380 driver is
> > what allows it to continue to be supported.
>
> I've been helping maintain the Linux kernel for six or seven years. I don't
> believe a word of your claim. Things like vmware are a problem, the et inc
> modules were a problem, oss has its problems. And thats despite the fact
> OSS especially, and also to an extent ET worked hard on chasing bugs

NT is a stinker. There is no question about that, except in the MS marketing
dept. It does get a worse press than it deserves, though. I would guess that
something like 90% of all BSOD and registry scrambling incidents are due to
iffy third party drivers. The S3 ViRGE NT driver is a true stinker, that
causes endless trouble with scrambled machines, and that was the market leader
in its hay day. Binary only drivers a PITA with all OSes, open source or
otherwise.

For balance, MS joins in the fun. Their IDE driver bombs the OS on a range of
disk faults, so one dead drive, or a dead element in a software RAID set,
results in a BSOD.

Steve

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