Re: Aunt Tillie builds a kernel (was Re: ISA hardware discovery -- the elegant solution)

Horst von Brand
2002-01-16T21:40:20Z

Thomas Duffy <Thomas.Duffy.99@alumni.brown.edu> said:

[...]

> - Someday, a stupid government or court decides that there is a strict
> separation between source and binary. Source is protected speech, but
> binaries are not. Linux decides it wants a really fast DVD decryption
> in the kernel, so it adds it in drivers. But now, distro's cannot
> compile and distribute a binary kernel package and the end user will
> need to compile the source code in order to watch their DVD.

No need for a full compile, just the offending driver. IF and WHEN it
happens. Till then, why bother?

> Why is it unrealistic for everybody to compile their kernel when they do
> an install? If it is rather automated, then it just becomes another
> step on the progress bar.

If each time you install $distro you have to get compiler, linker, Python,
and whatnot up and running; and then have to wait a half hour or so for the
standard distributed kernel to compile, I don't see the point. Its much
easier/faster/secure to just distribute and install binaries.
--
Horst von Brand http://counter.li.org # 22616