Re: Change of policy for future 2.2 driver submissions

Nicholas Knight (tegeran@home.com)
Thu, 4 Jan 2001 19:27:42 -0800


----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan Cox" <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
To: <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2001 6:41 PM
Subject: Change of policy for future 2.2 driver submissions

>
> Linux 2.4 is now out, it is also what people should be concentrating on
first
> when issuing production drivers and driver updates. Effective from this
point
> 2.2 driver submissions or major driver updates will only be accepted if
the
> same code is also available for 2.4.
>
> Someone has to do the merging otherwise, and it isnt going to be me...

This is the first time I'll have sent anything to this list, and I hadn't
planned on sending anything for a long time to come, but I think in this
case I must toss in my 2cents.
While I understand the reasoning behind this, and might do the same thing if
I was in your position, I feel it may be a mistake.
I personaly do not trust the 2.4.x kernel entirely yet, and would prefer to
wait for 2.4.1 or 2.4.2 before upgrading from 2.2.18 to ensure last-minute
wrinkles have been completely ironed out, and I know there are people who
share my viewpoint, and would rather use 2.2.XX for a while yet, and I'm
afraid that this may partialy criple 2.2 driver development.
It can take little or a lot of time to port a driver from 2.2 to 2.4, and in
some cases people may just not want to do it untill 2.4 has gone through a
little more refining, and that could take a while.

To sum it up, I just don't think this is the right decision to make, at
least not yet.
My opinion probably won't matter one bit, but I thought I might as well toss
it out there.

-NK

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