Re: A modest proposal -- We need a patch penguin

David Weinehall
2002-01-31T12:29:39Z

On Thu, Jan 31, 2002 at 03:17:52PM +0100, Ingo Molnar wrote:
>
> On Thu, 31 Jan 2002, Martin Dalecki wrote:
>
> > And then we are still just discussing here how to get things IN. But
> > there apparently currently is nearly no way to get things OUT of the
> > kernel tree. Old obsolete drivers used by some computer since
> > archeologists should be killed (Atari, Amiga, support, obsolete
> > drivers and so on). Just let *them* maintains theyr separate kernel
> > tree...
>
> 'old' architectures do not hinder development - they are separate, and
> they have to update their stuff. (and i think the m68k port is used by
> many other people and not CS archeologists.) Old drivers are not a true
> problem either - if they dont compile that's the problem of the
> maintainer. Occasionally old drivers get zapped (mainly when there is a
> new replacement driver).

To testify that even really old hardware is used, I recently received a
patch for 2.0.xx to add autodetection for wd1002s-wx2 in the
xd.c-driver. Not particularly recent hardware, but the person who sent
the patch uses it. Why deny him usage of his hardware when it doesn't
intrude upon the rest of the codebase?

/David
_ _
// David Weinehall <tao@acc.umu.se> /> Northern lights wander \\
// Maintainer of the v2.0 kernel // Dance across the winter sky //
\> http://www.acc.umu.se/~tao/ </ Full colour fire </