> >>">>" == Ian Jackson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > >> * Some laptop users and certain others who wish to use the console > >> in better video modes have an easier life, as they can do so with > >> the stock Debian kernel. How many people would benefit seems to be > >> disputed, but it does seem clear from the BTS logs that the VESA fb > >> is popular.
On Fri, Oct 25, 2002 at 02:23:47PM -0500, Manoj Srivastava wrote: > I am not sure the latter follows. Certainly, there is a (small) > vocal set of users, but popularity is still in question. Without a way of measuring how much popular support VESA FB would get from non-vocal users (and from users who have given up because of the lack of vesa support) I don't see this as a meaningful distinction. > >> Do we have a list of other examples ? Herbert suggests > >> arpd, sch_atm, lp_console, nfs_root > > >> I think it's clear that most of those are not really in the same > >> position as VESA fb, because they are much more of a minority > >> interest. > > What is the dataset you are basing this assumption on? I am > not sure that they are in a different category at all. I understood him to mean that (with the exception of nfs_root), these options are not likely to be relevant in a low-end context. [In contrast, people who would need something like arpd, or sch_atm would have no lack of resources to rebuild the kernel.] > >> * Herbert says that there is another driver, fbcon, which cannot be > >> distributed in modularised form if VESA fb is included statically . > >> But the argument for needing to distribute fbcon as a module - that > >> it can be recompiled more easily - seems very weak to me. > > I guess I differ with this assesment. I find that bad, non > modular code precluding modularity in the kernel as a strong argument > for keeping the non-modular code out. This is an argument for the kernel architects. We're not kernel architects, however -- we're distributors. The kernel architects, for whatever reason, have decreed that if you want both vesafb and fbcon in a current version of Linux, you have to have them both compiled in statically. Our choice is: do we want to distribute this or not? -- Raul