"Sorry for the very long delay in getting this project back up off the ground. When I first announced it back in January, I never expected it to be so popular. Unfortunately, it ended up being pushed way back on my priority list as I had to deal with my day job at Novell first, then my Linux kernel development, then with any spare time left over, this project," Greg KH announced on the newly created Linux Driver Project Developer mailing list. He noted the project's official web page and explained:
"The good news is that this has now changed. As of today, Novell is sponsoring me to work on this Linux driver project as my first priority. This means I will have the time and resources to commit to managing the different developers and driver projects as part of my daily job."
The Linux Driver Project was originally announced in January of 2007.
From: Greg KH
Subject: Kick off the Linux Driver Project (again, this time for real)
Date: Sep 26, 7:32 pm 2007
Hi all,
You are getting this message because you have expressed interest in the
Linux Driver project. I have set up a mailing list for this, which
everyone is now subscribed to. If you want off of the list, just follow
the directions at the bottom of this message, or email me directly, I'll
be glad to take you off.
Sorry for the very long delay in getting this project back up off the
ground. When I first announced it back in January, I never expected it
to be so popular. Unfortunately, it ended up being pushed way back on my
priority list as I had to deal with my day job at Novell first, then my
Linux kernel development, then with any spare time left over, this
project.
The good news is that this has now changed. As of today, Novell is
sponsoring me to work on this Linux driver project as my first priority.
This means I will have the time and resources to commit to managing the
different developers and driver projects as part of my daily job.
So, to kick things off, everyone go look at the new wiki we have
installed at:
www.linuxdriverproject.org
It's pretty bare-bones, but should be enough to get people started with
how to interact with the project.
As individual developers, we have a lot of companies that are currently
waiting for developers. The new group of project managers will soon be
contacting people on this list with requests for help for specific
projects. Please help them out and work with them to help create
drivers for the different companies involved.
If you are a project manager, I'll be poking you all with the different
companies that have contacted me with requests to help you all start
going on them.
If you are with a company, and you haven't heard from me in a few months
as to the status of your driver project, please poke me again so that I
can set things up in the new structure so that your driver gets properly
developed and maintained.
We also need general help getting the word out about this project. If
anyone has any PR experience, we could really use the help.
Again, sorry for the very long delay. And if anyone has any questions
about anything regarding these projects, please let me know.
thanks,
greg k-h
We need...
We need open source device driver for NVIDIA graphics card, and for ATI graphics card, and for Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi sound card, and for wireless networking cards.
Talk with your money.
A good step in that direction would be for people to buy hardware from companies that HAVE open source drivers. In other words, don't give your money to Creative, NVIDIA, or Broadcom.
why do we have a microsoft employee leading a Linux project
A Novell employee leading the Linux Driver Project?
What's wrong with this picture? ... Let me count the ways.
Quite an idiotic statement
Quite an idiotic statement you made there....
If you want, you can attack any of them over whoever pays their bills. They cant buy food without money right?
And if Linux is hurting the Microsoft monopoly, then paying someone to do a _good_ work would be _bad for
Microsoft in this regards, right?
So actually what does your wrong statement do? Do we have thousand of full-time hobby-programmers improving the kernel? No we dont. Did we gain new insights over your post? Yes, we did. About you.
We have people that regularly, or at times, send in patches to the kernel. That's it basically.
Most somewhat test them, then these get reviewed and tested more and eventually this will go
into some kernel tree for more testing before it becomes part of the "real" kernel after
even more testing.
Also, how does being "paid" by a company change the way how GOOD or BAD your work actually is?
The idea behind this all so far, is one of the _BEST_ ideas the last some years. (The automatic
loadable+compileable "Dell thingy" for module+devices is also nice)
GKH is one of my favourite developers in this regard.
He is a lot more polite than the average other kernel dev ;-)
And if you want to attack someone, do it when Drepper again flames an individual right
after he changes something on behalf of a company - and leave GKH out of your troll statements.
And even then, there is plenty of room for an individual to do good or idiotic work... even more
than your statement is idiotic.
Regards and sorry for the flaming...
For all I care he's a
For all I care he's a Microsoft employee. When will people learn that even companies with bad management can have great employees?
And besides, there are some of us in the FOSS world that aren't ready to write off Novell as evil just yet. You probably use Mono (via Banshee, Tomboy, or Beagle to name a few) which is a Novell product, and Novell does a lot for OpenOffice.
/me runs and ducks for cover
;)
Personally, if I was working
Personally, if I was working for Novell, I would most likely have considered working somewhere else (both because I strongly disagree with the actions of the company's management, and also to avoid getting bashed for that all the time). Of course, it's not always possible, so you have to give one the benefit of the doubt.
A couple of observations
A couple observations -
1. well known kernel hacker and Novell employee Greg K-H would most likely object to being called a microsoft employee.
2. I wouldn't write novell off for their microsoft deal, even though I confess it creeps me out a bit. Novell is still competing vigorously against microsoft, despite all the talk of peace and harmony for the benefit of the press releases.
Linux is turning into Windows
At least with regards to freedom, it's getting closer.
"We are willing and able to sign NDAs with companies"
This is truly sad. Others are working very hard to make companies release freely available documentation so that anyone can write proper driver.
Have you already forgotten about http://kerneltrap.org/?q=OpenBSD/Software_Freedom ?
What happens when the developer "disappears"? Who will maintain the driver? With what documentation? Sign another NDA? With what company (they went out of business)?
Signing an NDA is a spit in the face to those that work hard to make companies open up their documentation for the good of Free and Open Source Software.
I wish this project dead.
Why do you insist making
Why do you insist making this an "OpenBSD vs Linux" argument when it's not? Your comparison between Linux and Windows just gives you extra troll points.
Yes, NDAs suck. Linux users and developers are not thrilled of drivers written under NDAs either. You obviously couldn't be bothered with getting your facts straight: GKH got a lot of flak from the Linux community back when he announced his driver project. But he is a developer and not a speaker on behalf of Linux.
The truth is that there are hundreds of developers working under NDAs, whether they publicly announce it or not. Many of them are employed by the hardware vendor they develop drivers for. Some hardware vendors are actually taking Linux seriously these days: refusing their free drivers for undocumented hardware would simply force them to distribute binary drivers instead.
What do you suggest Linux should do about it? Should we reject all drivers without documentation, with Intel among tens of others, and live with binaries instead? Should we rant and rave like Theo to scare off every last hardware vendor who was interested in developing open source drivers? Theo certainly has a point, but his immature behavior has hurt OpenBSD more than helped it (or anyone else).
Linux isn't exactly a small hobby project anymore.
"What do you suggest Linux should do about it?"
Use its leverage to get the documentation needed.
"Should we rant and rave like Theo to scare off every last hardware vendor who was interested in developing open source drivers?"
If they require NDAs, they're not interested in developing Open Source drivers. NDAs are incompatible with the Open Source development model.
I'm not sure what hardware vendors you think your favorite target has scared off, but you have probably failed to look at the list of supported devices. Pay particular attention to the wireless support.
"Theo certainly has a point, but his immature behavior has hurt OpenBSD more than helped it."
He is the founder of OpenBSD. Without Theo, OpenBSD would not be.
He is the founder of
Yes, I very much understand that; his code, his expertise and his dedication is excellent and has helped OpenBSD a lot. But every time he opens his mouth, kittens are killed and people get frustrated.
Yes, we absolutely should stress and insist on public documentation, and I am very disappointed with GKH leaving the impression that providing documentation under NDAs is perfectly fine. But you said it yourself: Uncooperative hardware vendors couldn't care less about open source. They are only interested in getting a functional driver.
But I will accept a NDA rather than attempted arm twisting. Giving a blanket response "no, we won't accept NDA" will only annoy them about the open source development model. Some will write a binary driver, others will simply ignore us. And I will claim that a driver written under the NDA is better than a binary driver.
In fact, wireless support is an excellent example. Vendors that don't publish their documentation either write their own binary blobs or wait until the community writes a reverse engineered driver. They win in either case; they are using their leverage against the OSS world.
"But you said it yourself:
"But you said it yourself: Uncooperative hardware vendors couldn't care less about open source. They are only interested in getting a functional driver."
If the company is interested in getting a functional driver, you already have their attention. Use it.
What really annoys me is that they're basically asking for NDAs to sign! They're not even trying! Why should the next company free documentation when others have just signed an NDA? This is destructive for us all.
"But I will accept a NDA rather than attempted arm twisting. Giving a blanket response "no, we won't accept NDA" will only annoy them about the open source development model."
And when, exactly, do we say no? When the Open in Open Source has become Closed?
"And I will claim that a driver written under the NDA is better than a binary driver."
For the short term effect, I will agree. At least there's some form of (crippled) source code that can be studied. But when we first go down that road ...
FSF Award
"Theo certainly has a point, but his immature behavior has hurt OpenBSD more than helped it (or anyone else)."
I know Theo is an easy target, but your statement is complete nonsense. If his actions did not help anyone, why then was he awarded the 2004 Free Software Award?
http://www.fsf.org/news/fsaward2004.html
Re: FSF Award
Theo's award came from Richard Stallman, another gifted hacker not noted for his conciliatory stances.
Re: FSF Award
No, the award came from the FSF and presented to him by RMS. There where 11 people in the award committee that year. Not sure what your point is, but these are the facts nevertheless.