Updated Windows NT Sync Driver Posted For The Linux Kernel

[Developer12]

With a name like that, just wait until the Linux-Libre people start stripping it out for "promoting the use of proprietary software." XD

They've done dumber shit. Couple years ago they started stripping out warnings that users were running microcode with known security vulnerabilities (and presumably now stability problems too) because aparently warning users about danger is promoting the use of proprietary firmware.

As Matthew Garrett noted at the time, "[this] is not to user's benefit."

[Quackdoc]

It's called reactos, it's not that good.

ReactOS is completely different. As an related aside, I do actually use reactOS every now and then, and plan on using it in a dedicated retro gaming build I plan on doing soon.

[F.Ultra]

I hope they get this merged at some point in the near future. I do think they should change the node name though. At some point it very well could be used for outside of wine/windows software after it is merge after all.

there exists zero use case outside of WINE for this. The edge cases that it is trying to solve is marked as obsolete in Windows and so few games/apps use them that no one in the WINE community that works with these patches have been able to find a single example in the wild.

[rabcor]

ReactOS is completely different. As an related aside, I do actually use reactOS every now and then, and plan on using it in a dedicated retro gaming build I plan on doing soon.

ReactOS is mostly based on wine.

[NSLW]

Great and useful work from her. I just wonder if it impacts everything like e.g. some vintage games like Civ4 or only the games listed in the comparison.

I also think it would be more fair to compare improvements also against ESYNC/FSYNC.

[JMB9]

With a name like that, just wait until the Linux-Libre people start stripping it out for "promoting the use of proprietary software." XD

They've done dumber shit. Couple years ago they started stripping out warnings that users were running microcode with known security vulnerabilities (and presumably now stability problems too) because aparently warning users about danger is promoting the use of proprietary firmware.

As Matthew Garrett noted at the time, "[this] is not to user's benefit."

This view is - from my point of view - focussed on convienience - and I well understand it.
I live with binary blobs, too, as e.g. I want to use powerful graphics.
But of cause I would feel much better if every single bit was knwon and changed by many developers,
not just a few inside a company doing most things in secret.
We all have seen what made mitigations necessary. If the things Intel and others did was done openly,
we would have been warned. This happen a lot more frequently than harm done by not using
proprietary parts.

Well, as a former scientist I still have the GNU spirit in my heart - and as a Unix/Linux guy I don't want to use
Windows programs - including games - as they are normally not well made as is Windows (name any version here).
And a lot of devs were really angy and left Linux aside as the amount of bug reports is higher while it is a small
subset of entire income.
If one is looking on servers of devs, the depth of bug reports is quite different on Linux and on Windows.

When Steam started Linux work, it did it so to not be too dependant on the company they come from ...
but learnt and still use the same tactics: especially embrace and extent.
Developers get help to get controler support working and help with game editors ... which - no wonder -
is perfectly available on Steam but not on rivaling gaming platforms like the European one: GOG.
I was really suprised as I tried getting an account to help a game developer fixing some bugs - and was
not able to do it. I saw a screenshot and there is a new window which should rise - not for me.
So Steam is still Windows focused (one may say there are more games so o logical reason) - and Linux games
are just programs which work with wine and other glue things (so not made for Linux but just make it run there).

I know gamers liking low res (less than 4k - which is really low actually - but unfortunately still
state of the art) and rediculous hi refresh rates (which is just an imagined pro like using 4k on
a tiny smartphone - just for making other non-technical people envy) - and like Windows ...
maybe its all about convenience (and thus just mass products).

I am looking for quality - so I am interested in real ports and not seeing crashes - which is normal under GNU/Linux
even used for months of usage time.

So I don't like Wine - as it does not solve the problem but just make it not that severe ... while increasing
the pressure to create Windows games in contrast to foxus on Linux ganes and then porting this to other
OSs - and a lot of Windows SW does not work just using Emulators/Layers.
Those are making a program slower and introducing further bugs - there is no gain in quality/speed etc.
This means a clear "yes" that such things do make users less free and helping in locking them into
special vendors. That was the reason to create GPL3 - which is less freedom for people misusing code
(i.e. enslaving users and locking them into being forced to pay special companies) - which is a good thing -
while increasing the freedom of users (i.e. the community), which is all what counts in respect of human rights.

If only the richest people would have human rights, this would be a mirror of what is happening today
with companies like Microsoft, Apple or Steam. And it not limited to them.

For those not caring about quality, choice, freedom ... and just want convenience - Windows & Wine/Proton/...,
i.e. Microsoft and Valve, iOS/Apple, ... you name it ..., is a good thing for sure.

For me this is not the case and BSD license means for me a sub-quality SW due to a bad license as companies are lead
to no longer participate but embrace and extent - this is not necessary to happen (e.g. with LLVM) - but it could happen
(CUPS had suffered from that disease - which seems to be solved, fortunately).

Everyone is free to make her/his/... choice ... just do it and be happy.
But there is a reason for FSF, GPL3 and other means to preserve or create freedom (_of users_).
At least this should be well known for all using the kernel Linux and its distributions.

Linux (kernel) and GNU/Linux (distributions/OSs) were created by individuals - not by LF
(or other big companies) - LF is acting as umbrella for big companies to help with there needs.
This may or may not be in the interest of users ...
While a lot of people contributing to Linux are still fond of helping normal people (not only companies) - i.e, users -
with all their needs and workflows they prefer. This is what I call GNU spirit (not really represented in the
entire FSF, unfotunately).

I just value the user community to be much more important.
And this should be a logical reason most people could respect - as we all are - or could be - users, right?

[monohouse]

WINE's problem is not to need more performance, it's the inability to reallocate 32-bit virtual address space from the game to the video driver, too many games crash because of this, windows does this for OpenGL, you can with, say wined3d convert a game's API to OpenGL and get unlimited amount of texture memory... WINE never worked as well as windows (I don't mean performance), until WINE fixes 32-bit games virtual address space problems, 32-bit games will never work on WINE. it's also funny that wined3d (older versions, like 6.x) is able to reallocate address space on windows but not on Linux...

[Developer12]

This view is - from my point of view - focussed on convienience - and I well understand it.
I live with binary blobs, too, as e.g. I want to use powerful graphics.
But of cause I would feel much better if every single bit was knwon and changed by many developers,
not just a few inside a company doing most things in secret.
We all have seen what made mitigations necessary. If the things Intel and others did was done openly,
we would have been warned. This happen a lot more frequently than harm done by not using
proprietary parts.

Well, as a former scientist I still have the GNU spirit in my heart - and as a Unix/Linux guy I don't want to use
Windows programs - including games - as they are normally not well made as is Windows (name any version here).
And a lot of devs were really angy and left Linux aside as the amount of bug reports is higher while it is a small
subset of entire income.
If one is looking on servers of devs, the depth of bug reports is quite different on Linux and on Windows.

When Steam started Linux work, it did it so to not be too dependant on the company they come from ...
but learnt and still use the same tactics: especially embrace and extent.
Developers get help to get controler support working and help with game editors ... which - no wonder -
is perfectly available on Steam but not on rivaling gaming platforms like the European one: GOG.
I was really suprised as I tried getting an account to help a game developer fixing some bugs - and was
not able to do it. I saw a screenshot and there is a new window which should rise - not for me.
So Steam is still Windows focused (one may say there are more games so o logical reason) - and Linux games
are just programs which work with wine and other glue things (so not made for Linux but just make it run there).

I know gamers liking low res (less than 4k - which is really low actually - but unfortunately still
state of the art) and rediculous hi refresh rates (which is just an imagined pro like using 4k on
a tiny smartphone - just for making other non-technical people envy) - and like Windows ...
maybe its all about convenience (and thus just mass products).

I am looking for quality - so I am interested in real ports and not seeing crashes - which is normal under GNU/Linux
even used for months of usage time.

So I don't like Wine - as it does not solve the problem but just make it not that severe ... while increasing
the pressure to create Windows games in contrast to foxus on Linux ganes and then porting this to other
OSs - and a lot of Windows SW does not work just using Emulators/Layers.
Those are making a program slower and introducing further bugs - there is no gain in quality/speed etc.
This means a clear "yes" that such things do make users less free and helping in locking them into
special vendors. That was the reason to create GPL3 - which is less freedom for people misusing code
(i.e. enslaving users and locking them into being forced to pay special companies) - which is a good thing -
while increasing the freedom of users (i.e. the community), which is all what counts in respect of human rights.

If only the richest people would have human rights, this would be a mirror of what is happening today
with companies like Microsoft, Apple or Steam. And it not limited to them.

For those not caring about quality, choice, freedom ... and just want convenience - Windows & Wine/Proton/...,
i.e. Microsoft and Valve, iOS/Apple, ... you name it ..., is a good thing for sure.

For me this is not the case and BSD license means for me a sub-quality SW due to a bad license as companies are lead
to no longer participate but embrace and extent - this is not necessary to happen (e.g. with LLVM) - but it could happen
(CUPS had suffered from that disease - which seems to be solved, fortunately).

Everyone is free to make her/his/... choice ... just do it and be happy.
But there is a reason for FSF, GPL3 and other means to preserve or create freedom (_of users_).
At least this should be well known for all using the kernel Linux and its distributions.

Linux (kernel) and GNU/Linux (distributions/OSs) were created by individuals - not by LF
(or other big companies) - LF is acting as umbrella for big companies to help with there needs.
This may or may not be in the interest of users ...
While a lot of people contributing to Linux are still fond of helping normal people (not only companies) - i.e, users -
with all their needs and workflows they prefer. This is what I call GNU spirit (not really represented in the
entire FSF, unfotunately).

I just value the user community to be much more important.
And this should be a logical reason most people could respect - as we all are - or could be - users, right?

Did you actually make any kind of point in all this?