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Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2026 16:44:11 -0400 (EDT)
From: Byron Stanoszek <gandalf@winds.org>
To: Andrew Lunn <andrew@lunn.ch>
cc: Andrew Lunn <andrew+netdev@lunn.ch>, 
    "David S. Miller" <davem@davemloft.net>, 
    Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>, Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>, 
    Paolo Abeni <pabeni@redhat.com>, Simon Horman <horms@kernel.org>, 
    Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>, Shuah Khan <skhan@linuxfoundation.org>, 
    linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, netdev@vger.kernel.org, 
    linux-doc@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH net 00/18] Remove a number of ISA and PCMCIA Ethernet
 drivers
In-Reply-To: <20260421-v7-0-0-net-next-driver-removal-v1-v1-0-69517c689d1f@lunn.ch>
Message-ID: <71d319ef-cd49-e8a8-70dd-cf0763ac6305@winds.org>
References: <20260421-v7-0-0-net-next-driver-removal-v1-v1-0-69517c689d1f@lunn.ch>
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On Tue, 21 Apr 2026, Andrew Lunn wrote:

> These old drivers have not been much of a Maintenance burden until
> recently. Now there are more newbies using AI and fuzzers finding
> issues, resulting in more work for Maintainers. Fixing these old
> drivers make little sense, if it is not clear they have users.
>
>      drivers: net: 3com: 3c59x: Remove this driver

Hi Andrew,

I happen to still use this driver on several hundred industrial PC
installations that were outfitted with 3com 3C905-B & CX cards 15+ years ago.
The old hardware still runs, therefore those cards haven't needed to be
replaced. I keep these systems up to date with the latest Linux kernel roughly
once per year.

I understand the maintenance burden, but I would be delighted to continue
receiving bug fixes for this driver via the mainline Linux kernel if you are
still willing to continue to support it.

Thanks and best regards,
  -Byron