linux-kernel - Re: GPL only modules [was Re: [GIT PATCH] more Driver core patches for 2.6.19]

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Date:	Wed, 20 Dec 2006 15:52:12 -0500
From:	Valdis.Kletnieks@...edu
To:	davids@...master.com
Cc:	Marek Wawrzyczny <marekw1977@...oo.com.au>,
	valdis.kletnietks@...edu, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: GPL only modules [was Re: [GIT PATCH] more Driver core patches for 2.6.19]

On Wed, 20 Dec 2006 11:29:00 PST, David Schwartz said:

> Let's not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Remember, the goal is to
> allow consumers to know whether or not their system's hardware
> specifications are available. It's not about driver availability -- if the
> hardware specifications are available and a driver is not, that's not the
> hardware manufacturer's fault.

My point was "their system's hardware specifications" is, for some popular
vendors, a *very* fuzzy notion. You can't (for instance) say "specs are
available for a Dell Latitude D820" - there are configurations that specs are
available for, and configs that aren't.  My D820 has an NVidia card in it - we
know the answer there.  Do you give a different answer for a D820 that has the
Intel i950 graphics chipset instead?

Even more annoying, Dell often *changes* the vendor - the line item for the DVD
drive says "8X DVD+/-RW" (other choices include 24X CD-ROM and 24X CD-RW/DVD).
Mine showed up with a Philips SDVD8820 - but it's possible that some other D820
will get some other vendor's DVD (I've seen 2 C820's ordered at the same time,
they showed up with 2 different vendor's "24X CD-RW/DVD").  It's possible that
some poor guy is going to get a D820 that has a DVD that we have a known
buggy driver for - what do we tell *them*?

It's *easy* to do a "semi-good" that tells you if there's drivers for the
hardware config you're running the program on. But there's 2 problems:

a) You probably already know the answer
b) By the time you can run the program, it's often too late....

So given those 2 points, what actual value-added info does this *give*, over
and above 'lspci' and friends?  I suppose maybe for a install CD, it gives
a quick way to cleanly abort the install with a "Don't bother continuing
unless it's OK that your graphics/wireless/whatever won't work".  On the
other hand, the installer should have a grasp on this *already*....

Perfect may be the enemy of the good, but the good is also the enemy of
stuff claiming to be good but misses on an important design goal...

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