Re: Fw: Re: keyboard problem with 2.6.6

[Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@suse.cz>]

On Sat, May 29, 2004 at 04:07:36PM +0200, Andries Brouwer wrote:
> On Sat, May 29, 2004 at 09:09:53AM +0200, Vojtech Pavlik wrote:
> 
> > One more thought: The emulated PS/2 mouse so many people are complaining
> > about is there only because applications like X cannot use the native
> > event interface. It was intended to be removed after that support is
> > added, but with X development being as slow as it is, it didn't ever
> > happen.
> 
> A mistake.

Well, yes. It's just 99% compatible, and it wasn't removed yet. But I
still hope it eventually will.

> You add new functionality. That is good. At the same time you want
> to force people to use this new stuff by throwing out the old. Bad.
> 
> It is almost impossible to remove features from the kernel.

I had hoped with so few programs using it (basically only X), it
shouldn't be so impossible.

> People have a great variety of user space setups, and can have
> lots of reasons why it is undesirable or impossible to change
> their software, while a new kernel may be required to support
> new hardware or for security reasons.
> 
> One should always (i) go in a long series of tiny steps,
> (ii) attempt to be 100% backwards compatible.
> Obsoleting old stuff is done over a period of more than
> five years, if at all.
> 
> Andries
> 

-- 
Vojtech Pavlik
SuSE Labs, SuSE CR