ATI video comes out of the closet

[Les Mikesell]

Matthew Saltzman wrote:

>> I want a stable kernel and device drivers. The unix-like system call 
>> interface doesn't need to change every week.
> 
> You've used similar phrases a few times in this and related threads, and
> it prompts a question:
> 
> Is this hyperbole, or are you really suggesting that every time a new
> kernel install requires a recompile of an external driver or binary
> driver shim, that it's because the API has changed?
> 
> I had assumed the former, but the number of times you've said it has
> made me start to wonder.

It's only hyperbole because I want to make the point that binaries could 
work except that GPL fanatics don't want them to work and go out of 
their way to make them difficult to use.  In fedora, the interface 
changes all the time at the binary level and driver modules try to work 
around it by providing their own interface shims.  The source level API 
changes from time to time too, requiring matching changes in all the 
modules.  I tend to think of interfaces as contracts among programmers 
that changes won't be made, so I'm not sure I'd really even call these 
interfaces - the shims wouldn't be necessary if a real interface was 
present.  It's at least interesting to note that such changes don't 
happen in RHEL during a release version, so it's not like the developers 
don't understand the value of stability.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
     lesmikesell at gmail.com