From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S267326AbUH0S5b (ORCPT ); Fri, 27 Aug 2004 14:57:31 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S267287AbUH0S50 (ORCPT ); Fri, 27 Aug 2004 14:57:26 -0400 Received: from jib.isi.edu ([128.9.128.193]:6791 "EHLO jib.isi.edu") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S267313AbUH0Szx (ORCPT ); Fri, 27 Aug 2004 14:55:53 -0400 Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2004 11:55:41 -0700 From: Craig Milo Rogers To: Linus Torvalds Cc: Xavier Bestel , Christoph Hellwig , Kernel Mailing List , webcam@smcc.demon.nl Subject: Re: Termination of the Philips Webcam Driver (pwc) Message-ID: <20040827185541.GC24018@isi.edu> References: <20040826233244.GA1284@isi.edu> <20040827004757.A26095@infradead.org> <20040827094346.B29407@infradead.org> <1093628254.15313.14.camel@gonzales> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.4i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On 04.08.27, Linus Torvalds wrote: > But Greg is right - we don't keep hooks that are there purely for binary > drivers. If somebody wants a binary driver, it had better be a whole > independent thing - and it won't be distributed with the kernel. If you read Nemosoft's final driver release (which has been reposted, and of which I now have a copy), you can see that he was rewriting his code to move the proprietary codecs out of the kernel entirely, and into user-mode libraries to be linked with consenting applications -- he was quite sensitive to the kernel issues involved. Of course, this is still nowhere as good as a wholly open source solution, a position with which I think Nemosoft concurs, based on his messages. Linus, would you adress a moot issue, please? If Nemosoft (or someone else) were to release some of the codecs in question as one or more open-source loadable kernel modules (similar to sound card support modules in the ALSA system), while other codecs remain binary-only loadable kernel modules (distributed outside the kernel, but using the same hook as the open-source loadable modules), would the pwc driver and codec extension hook be allowable, in your opinion, please? Craig Milo Rogers