Re: [PATCH] restore _OS object to "Linux" for ia64

[Len Brown <len.brown-ral2JQCrhuEAvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>]

On Mon, 2004-09-13 at 14:27, Alex Williamson wrote:
>    A recent change to ACPI made the _OS object falsely report the OS as
> "Microsoft Windows NT".  This seems like a slippery slope, and I'd
> rather not go down it for ia64.  I think all of the ia64 OEMs are
> involved enough with Linux that this isn't necessary and the change
> limits the options should ACPI firmware need to make an OS specific work
> around.  The patch below will make all ia64 boxes report a default _OS
> of "Linux".

While I share your pride in Linux, there are a couple of reasons
why we do not make _OS return "Linux".

_OS is a deprecated interface -- it has been replaced
by the more flexible _OSI.  So with _OS we're talking
about past, not future systems.  And there is a total
population of 0 systems in the installed base that check
for _OS ="Linux" in their firmware.  On the other hand, there
are zillions of systems that check for Windows with _OS,
and the !Windows path through the firmware is effectivly
unvalidated.

While this is really important on i386, it may not be
important for ia64.  However, unless you can show
me an existing system that checks for _OS=Linux, then
it only adds risk w/o reward to make this change, even
if just on ia64.  New systems should be using _OSI.

thanks,
-Len




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