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Category: Most Improved Kernel Module
So often the kernel gets all the credit. We decided to be a little pickier and have people vote for the most improved module in the Linux kernel. A driver you really like? Support for that really cool piece of hardware? Or maybe you just really think that bob.o has just some of the prettiest hacks your eyes have seen in it. Regardless, vote away.
Does anyone know the module name? Is it technically a "kernel module"?
If it counts as a module, I'd have to say my #1 favourite is Reiserfs. It's the most elegent filing system I've seen, it's efficient on the disk and it's fast!
Coming joint second, IMHO, are FreeS/WAN and the International Patch, which offer phenominal security at the kernel level.
The silliest kernel patch, though, I think should go do PPS. A -nanosecond- clock? If you can find a source stable enough outside of a few research labs or the military, I'm not sure the hardware Linux will run on is stable enough to be able to make use of the accuracy.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Not just for tulip, but for all his plethora of ethernet drivers.
But tulip is the one I use, not my "almost a tulip chip" linksys card. I wrote to Becker (instead of testing out beta drivers like I should have..) when my card didn't work with the in-kernel driver at the time - he helpfully pointed me to a newer version that works flawlessly.
Lots of stability, lots of cards, extremely open, limited MIDI yet, but designed and being implemented.
ALSA has definately come a long way...
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
http://www.alsa-project.org
Lots of stability, lots of cards, extremely open, limited MIDI yet, but designed and being implemented.
ALSA has definately come a long way...
While the sensors are cool, and I think Phil et. al. have done a great job, I'd probably put the I2C modules you guys did right up there as well - it seems to have emerged as the de facto I2C stack. The bttv driver is porting over to it....
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No other kernel project deserves a reward than the ALSA project. They have brought advanced sound to a millions of Linux users.
Am truly gradeful for the boys and girls who code for the project. Enjoy, and thank you for giving a voice to my linux box.
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Thank parport for the improved Zip drive functionality. Note that you can now use a Zip drive and a printer now without juggling your modules.
This is a big improvement over the old functionality and deserves credit.
Besides, I wasn't going to nominate something I don't actually use...
The USB support seems to really be coming along these days. You can see it in action (to some extent) in the 2.3.x series. It sounds like it's going to definitely be included in 2.4.
OK, technically Journaled File Systems technically aren't one particular module, and we'll be lucky if we even see a journaled ReiserFS make it into the early 2.4 tree, but...
1) Those of us (probably the majority) who shut down our Linux boxes daily, suffer an occasional power failure, or even reboot to Windows sometimes, sit through countless centuries of fscking delays. A JFS eliminates this, with untold possiblities for the world, since that much mroe time will be available for productive work.
2) SuSE includes ReiserFS in its kernels, no? Linux is GPL'd after all; the rules don't say that the module has to be in a Linus Torvalds or Alan Cox maintained tree!
3) On the server front, the more Linux has to offer for high availability, and protection from data loss, the better. Being able to claim 3 journaled file systems (XFS, ext3, and ReiserFS), Linux advocates have that much more firepower.
I think this is the only logical vote.
I am a long-time Linux user with different laptops and so I experienced first hand how much work David Hinds and a number of helpers have put into them.
Just look at it:
- From its early beginnings, the modules were a more and more *complete* set of hot-swap drivers long before similar hardware (usb) existed.
- David & Co. have created drivers for most every PCMCIA card on the market (I know what I talk about, I have used a number of very strange cards, a PCMCIA-connected floppy drive for the Toshiba Libretto among them). Of course, there will always be cards missing. But still, the sheer number of drivers in the PCMCIA modules are incredible.
- They have done so even for those PCMCIA cards without proper developer documentation.
- David's work was not included with the kernel for a very long time becaus of design decisions by the core kernel developers. Nevertheless, he has kept on supporting this *external* set of sources for many years and made it compatible to most kernel versions at any given time (the same source distribution was compatible with 2.0.x, 2.2.x and 2.3.x for some time).
- Also, the source's Makefile is compatible with every distribution I know of - out of the box. (The PCMCIA modules require some modified init-scripts).
So yes, the PCMCIA modules are an incredible effort that have come a long way over a long time and are very solid piece of software. I possibly wouldn't use Linux without them.
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