Richard L. Hamilton wrote:
>From one other OS, maybe; multiple, I doubt it, since
each OS has a slightly different framework for drivers:
the entry points (and associated semantics) they're
supposed to provide, the kernel functions they're allowed
to call, etc.
It's not always straightforward, but I'm reasonably sure a number
of drivers have already been ported from one or more of the
*BSDs.
Yes.
With Linux, there's the whole license issue, and that's probably
the only case where what you're talking about really applies.
Maybe the most important one.
And AFAIK, the Linux kernel developers are not willing to commit
to a stable driver interface; what works with the current Linux
kernel may not some time in the future. So a framework for
supporting Linux drivers (whether in user-space or as loadable
kernel modules, assuming that wouldn't be a license problem
(and I'm sure there are people that would argue either side of
whether or not it would be)) would likely need to be updated
as the Linux driver interface evolved, at least to support
new or updated drivers.
We dont need to rely on linux driver anymore as long as the Solaris
user mode driver works.
Would it be great to have as many drivers as Linux? Absolutely.
Would it be worth it to solve licensing or technical problems or
both to be able to use the Linux drivers in Solaris? That, I
have serious doubts about.
That depends on how easy it will be to do it, I think.
For some narrow classes of drivers, some sort of arrangement
to make Linux drivers work with Solaris with minimal manual
intervention is possible. For example, there used to be
http://web.archive.org/web/20000919160418/http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/ndpkit.html
before one of the authors of Linux drivers made a stink about it to the point
that it was discontinued. (still not clear to me if he had a legal leg to stand
on, but apparently he at least held the ground in terms of PR)
Really good idea. It is a pity that it is not downloadable.
I will trace it.
Even a user mode solution, while less likely to be subject to licensing
questions, would probably be a major PR mess, unless Solaris was GPLv2'd,
which would annoy a lot of [Open]Solaris developers.
This approach is compatible with Sun's policy with open source code.
Such a fascist attitude on the part of the Linux crowd is fairly ironic,
considering that Linux has borrowed at the very least ideas if not code
from Solaris since its earliest days.
Maybe that will be mutual authorization for using code.
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