Re:Windows 95 went the extra mile to ensure compatibility of...
by marcodiego on Monday December 26, 2022 @08:47PM
(#34144032)
What you say is not true. Once a driver is in the kernel, there's usually nothing a user must do to get the device working. It works so well that devices works on architectures manufacturers haven't even thought about. The policy in the kernel when any internal interface changes is: you change it, you have to modify all the driver to keep them working. It works splendidly well.
Re:Windows 95 went the extra mile to ensure compatibility of...
by lmm on Monday December 26, 2022 @09:20PM
(#34144287)
> What you say is not true.
It's true, and I have 3 devices that stopped working under Linux to prove it.
> Once a driver is in the kernel, there's usually nothing a user must do to get the device working.
If the driver is accepted into the kernel tree in the first place, and until it gets removed, yes. The fact remains that that's a much narrower window than for most OSes.
> The result isn't even "fuck you, recompile." The result is, "fuck you, you better be constantly fixing the shit that we broke with our breaking changes."
Linux's approach to drivers is the most "fuck you, you better be constantly fixing the shit that we broke with our breaking changes" of any OS. It does take userland compatibility seriously though.