User Plea Means EISA Support Not Removed From Linux

jones_supa writes A patch was proposed to the Linux Kernel Mailing List to drop support for the old EISA bus. However a user chimed in: "Well, I'd like to keep my x86 box up and alive, to support EISA FDDI equipment I maintain if nothing else — which in particular means the current head version of Linux, not some ancient branch." Linus Torvalds was friendly about the case: "So if we actually have a user, and it works, then no, we're not removing EISA support. It's not like it hurts us or is in some way fundamentally broken, like the old i386 code was (i386 kernel page fault semantics really were broken, and the lack of some instructions made it more painful to maintain than needed — not like EISA at all, which is just a pure add-on on the side)." In addition to Intel 80386, recent years have also seen MCA bus support being removed from the kernel. Linux generally strives to keep support even for crusty hardware if there provably is still user(s) of the particular gear.

Comments

Re:Crusty Hardware

[HBI]

AC, the Compaq Deskpro line implemented EISA. While these systems rarely saw use in homes, banks were full of the things as were other firms. Deskpros were built like tanks up until about 1996. I installed lots of EISA NICs, in particular.

My point is that there were more of these systems out there than you think.

Re:What a cheap fucker

[geert]

Because he's the maintainer.

http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/MAINTAINERS#n2998

DEFXX FDDI NETWORK DRIVER
M: "Maciej W. Rozycki"
S: Maintained
F: drivers/net/fddi/defxx.*

He's supposed to run the latest kernel, and keep this driver working...

Re:Crusty Hardware

[ArcadeMan]

Things like scanners and printers shouldn't require special drivers in 2015. When we plug a keyboard or mouse into our computers, it just works because they're standard devices with standard drivers.