On Tue, 01 Mar 2005 23:56:52 +0100, Fernando Herrera <fherrera@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > But if Sally bought a webcam > that is not supported by the standard kernel, should we say to her > "Don't use linux, use Windows"? Use what works best for you. Is that such a hard guideline? If sally finds relying on bill's experience works best.. then sally should rely on bill's experience. If sally wants to do things for herself and finds that works best then she should do that. If sally finds that using specific model of webcam is supremely important to the exclusion of other factors and can not rely on bill's experience to keep it working in linux, she should do exactly what it takes to best fit her needs even if its using windows. Though someone perhaps might decide to befriend sally and buy her a webcam that works under linux without the need for binary kernel modules... its a crazy crazy hypothetical world afterall. There really is no point in debating in this list, the pros and cons of upstream kernel development's insistence on having the flexibility of an undefined internal abi. The fact that there is no stable abi is a 'feature' of upstream kernel development.. a delibrate design choice. Fighting that fact means consuming substantial developer time that could be better spent working on bugs. -jef
