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Update On Free Linux Driver Development

Posted by kdawson on from the i'll-have-one-with-sprinkles dept.

Remember the offer Greg Kroah-Hartman made earlier this year, to get Linux drivers written for free for any company that wanted them? Now an anonymous reader points us to an article up on linuxworld with an update to this program. Greg K-H, who leads the development of several kernel subsystems including USB and PCI, admits that the January offer was a bit of "marketing hype" — but says it has brought companies and developers together anyway. Twelve companies have said "yes please," one driver is already in the kernel, and five more are in the pipeline.

4 of 272 comments (clear)

  1. The more free drivers, the better by BluSteel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Marketing hype or not, I'm always happy to see more hardware supported by free drivers. Thanks, Greg.

  2. Re:so did he write them for free or didn't he by Kelerain · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The marketing hype was the fact that the kernel developers would do this sort of development anyway. This isn't a special program of any kind, it's standard procedure and they were promoting it somewhat like other people promote special "one time offers" and such. So yes marketing hype, and yes they do in fact do that. The helpful part is they have actual hardware samples and/or specs to work with, so it's a real win all around.

  3. Re:Why... by QuantumG · · Score: 5, Interesting

    1. They're loadable modules.
    2. You should maybe leave the kernel development to the kernel developers.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
  4. Re:Can't copy GPL code? by QuantumG · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Yes, you are absolutely right. This statement:

    While one developer of a competing open source operating system has criticized the NDA approach, developers are free under the GPL to use the Linux driver as the documentation for a new one as long as they don't copy the actual code. in attempt to be diplomatic has just added confusion. Allow me to clarify:

          one developer = Theo de Raadt.
          competing open source operating system = OpenBSD
          criticized = profanity

    So to rewrite the sentence so it actually make sense:

    While Theo de Raadt, has slung profanities at the NDA approach, he is free to write a driver for OpenBSD if he wants by using the Linux driver as documentation, but he best not copy any of the code from the Linux driver if he wants to avoid having to GPL it (which he almost certainly does).

    Which makes this comment:

    "The drivers are generally better written than the specs," Kroah-Hartman says. make a lot more sense. But what the hell, I'll translate that too:

    Theo, stop moaning about specs.. these companies are not going to give us blueprints to the damn hardware.. and whatever they do give us is going to be confidential. That's the reality. Deal with it. If you refuse to enter into a non-disclosure agreement with these companies then don't complain when the only documentation you have is a Linux kernel driver. The specs aint that great anyway.

    Or, at least, that's what I read.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.