Re:Both Windows 10 and Chrome OS are embracing the Linux kernel
by overgard on Sunday May 12, 2019 @11:34AM
(#19892508)
Possibly. I do admire the way they put their foot down, but admittedly sometimes I just want a binary GPU driver without a lot of hassle. There's certainly an argument that getting most of the benefit of free software is better than "all-or-nothing" if that mostly results in "nothing". Especially if growing the user base of free software would give the all-or-nothing crowd more leverage with corporations in the future.
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Re:Both Windows 10 and Chrome OS are embracing the Linux kernel
by MegaDeKay on Sunday May 12, 2019 @12:20PM
(#19892792)
> I just want a binary GPU driver without a lot of hassle
Unfortunately, those two things tend to be incompatible. Kernel interfaces that a GPU driver might need to hook into can change from release to release. A solid GPU driver that is part of the kernel is what you _really_ want. The AMDGPU driver in the kernel is very good and gets better every release, and it is there substantially because AMD opened up their docs so such a driver could be developed. That's why I went with Team Red on my last GPU purchase and why I will on my next one. See also Intel.
Re:Both Windows 10 and Chrome OS are embracing the Linux kernel
by zeusk on Sunday May 12, 2019 @02:30PM
(#19893585)
I forgot where I read it, but from Microsoft's analytics it was found that majority of crashes were result of a driver bug (often) in the Graphics stack which was a decision driver for them to move the graphics stack into the userspace. The drivers still do have a kernel mode component but it is much smaller than it was in the XP days and the results show how (relatively) stable things have gotten since.