Linux 6.4 Slated To Start Removing Old, Unused & Unmaintained PCMCIA Drivers

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux 6.4 Slated To Start Removing Old, Unused & Unmaintained PCMCIA Drivers

Queued up ahead of the Linux 6.4 cycle this spring is removing all of the PCMCIA "char" drivers as part of a broader effort to remove PCMCIA socket and card driver code where there is no apparent users remaining...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.4-PCMCIA-Char-Dropping

[stan]

Just leave the drivers in there. They aren’t hurting anybody. It’s as if Linux has saboteurs working on behalf of M$FT and Apple and who are purposely making Linux suck by pushing planned obsolescence.

[waxhead]

Just leave the drivers in there. They aren’t hurting anybody. It’s as if Linux has saboteurs working on behalf of M$FT and Apple and who are purposely making Linux suck by pushing planned obsolescence.

It is not like Linux kernel 6.3 would not be erased from the internet is it? If some old cruft is removed it is "just" a matter of downgrading to a older Linux kernel release / distro. That being said I do actually agree with you , removing things just for the sake of removing it is evil. The problem here seems to be that the thing they remove does not work properly in the first place and since they are unmaintained they are not going to in the near future either...

[zexelon]

Just leave the drivers in there. They aren’t hurting anybody. It’s as if Linux has saboteurs working on behalf of M$FT and Apple and who are purposely making Linux suck by pushing planned obsolescence.

Actually they could be hurting people and they dont even know it! If these drivers are getting compiled in, or even compiled as modules they do get to interface with the kernel. Sure a module driver that is "unloaded" can just sit there and occupy a couple of mb of space doing nothing, but if it gets loaded and its no longer being maintained that's a very big issue.

More importantly is simply keeping these drivers in-tree but never looked at, that can cause major issues. I am 100% for removing code that can be removed safely!

If you have a use case for these drivers, take over maintaining them (or sponsor someone to do so).

[amxfonseca]

Just leave the drivers in there. They aren’t hurting anybody.

Step up and volunteer yourself to fix and maintain them. It’s really easy to ask others to do the work.

[CommunityMember]

Step up and volunteer yourself fix and maintain them. It’s really easy to ask others to do the work.

And also QA testing. One of the real world challenges is that so few people still have the devices and cards for testing purposes (to verify they work, reproduce bugs, and to verify fixes).

Alternatively, one can contact their paid Linux support provider and indicate you are using such devices, and want them to support you (if enough of their customers want such support, they may choose to volunteer upstream).

[EphemeralEft]

Just leave the drivers in there. They aren’t hurting anybody. It’s as if Linux has saboteurs working on behalf of M$FT and Apple and who are purposely making Linux suck by pushing planned obsolescence.

I think the general Linux methodology is to maintain compatibility unless there’s a good reason. So there’s probably a good reason to remove them.

Anyway, if it’s so easy then why don’t you do it?

[calc]

The systems that use the ancient 16-bit ISA PCMCIA hardware probably can barely run a modern kernel in the first place as they are roughly 30 years old. And as others have noted the old code appears to not be maintained.

Brief history:

16-bit PCMCIA (ISA) replaced prior proprietary cards and came out in 1990.

32-bit CardBus (PCI) replaced PCMCIA and came out in 1995.

ExpressCard (PCIe/USB) replaced CardBUS and came out in 2003.

ThunderBolt (PCIe) replaced ExpressCard and came out in 2009.

[stormcrow]

And also QA testing. One of the real world challenges is that so few people still have the devices and cards for testing purposes (to verify they work, reproduce bugs, and to verify fixes).

Alternatively, one can contact their paid Linux support provider and indicate you are using such devices, and want them to support you (if enough of their customers want such support, they may choose to volunteer upstream).

Yeah I still have some old PCMCIA cards laying around, but the laptops or small form factor devices they were used in are long since dead. I've considered throwing them out.

[ayumu]

I've considered throwing them out.

I hope you mean "selling them".