14 Staging Drivers Get Nuked From Linux 3.17

[droidhacker]

Stagnant isn't necessarily a bad thing. In some cases, it means "it works".
... which it does.

Er, that is to say, NOT the one in the kernel, which actually *does not* work.

[Guest]

Stagnant isn't necessarily a bad thing. In some cases, it means "it works".
... which it does.

I agree.

However, staging tree isn't meant for already 'stable' and ready drivers, drivers are there for a reason.
That can be for any number of reasons, using obsolete API, bad coding practice, having design problems etc.
If reasons why these are in staging are fixed, they go in, if these are not fixed, they get nuked from space.

[tului]

If Broadcom can't be arsed to hire some third world coder to at least tidy up their driver for inclusion outside of staging they can keep that hardware(and shove it in any and all orifices). Christ, what would it cost, $10000 a year for some part time employ in India or Taiwan to keep the code maintained. They could kickstart it if they're too damn cheap to come out of pocket.

[halfmanhalfamazing]

Where did Guido G?nther go?

Crystal HD Decodes New Linux Support Improvements

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTUzMTE

http://honk.sigxcpu.org/con/CrystalHD_progress.html

[Ansla]

Not a chance.

I'll just slap Windows on any machine that uses it (where possible). At least Broadcom supports their CrystalHD hardware with official drivers on Windows.

What are you talking about? The latest driver for Windows was released in 2011, if it works on Windows 8 or newer it's pure luck, just like it would be with any of the external drivers for Linux. Face it, this product has reached the state of "abandonware". If it stops working with newer kernels stick to the last one that works or get rid of that crap.

[TheLexMachine]

Crystal HD Decodes New Linux Support Improvements

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTUzMTE

http://honk.sigxcpu.org/con/CrystalHD_progress.html

He hasn't gone anywhere. He's just not working on CrystalHD and nobody else is either, including Broadcom. It's dead hardware with no support from the manufacturer and Broadcom hasn't even manufactured the product for several years due to absolutely no demand for it since the niche it was intended to fill no longer exists.

[Sonadow]

What are you talking about? The latest driver for Windows was released in 2011, if it works on Windows 8 or newer it's pure luck, just like it would be with any of the external drivers for Linux. Face it, this product has reached the state of "abandonware". If it stops working with newer kernels stick to the last one that works or get rid of that crap.

Unlike Linux, one can install XP-era drivers on Windows 8.1 and still have them work almost perfectly.

And I'm doing that right one with an antique SiS WiFi stick that ceased to be supported in Linux ever since the 2.6.x kernel series was released. That's more than 10 years of binary compatibility in Windows. So much for Linux being better suited for 'old hardware' if they have to be gotten rid of in half the time.

[SebastianB]

Unlike Linux, one can install XP-era drivers on Windows 8.1 and still have them work almost perfectly.

And I'm doing that right one with an antique SiS WiFi stick that ceased to be supported in Linux ever since the 2.6.x kernel series was released. That's more than 10 years of binary compatibility in Windows. So much for Linux being better suited for 'old hardware' if they have to be gotten rid of in half the time.

If a driver is that trivial and independent of the OS, chances are backporting it from 3.16 to newer kernels will be trivial aswell.

And Linux is better for old hardware, who says you have to use the latest kernel? The 2.6 kernel line is still maintained and getting bug/security fixes, which you can't say for winxp. At the end of the day the only thing windows let's you do is run unmaintained code long past it's expiration date.

Besides that the compatibility is crap, my old emu10k soundcard won't run at all on win8 with its xp drivers, and that was one hell of a common card back in the day, needless to say linux handles it truly plug and play, like advertised on the box. I'm thinking about returning it tbh, says WinME or newer, that's false advertising.

[TheBlackCat]

Unlike Linux, one can install XP-era drivers on Windows 8.1 and still have them work almost perfectly.

Sometimes you can, sometimes you can't. My Epson scanner, for example, was completely broken by Vista.

[Ansla]

Unlike Linux, one can install XP-era drivers on Windows 8.1 and still have them work almost perfectly.

And I'm doing that right one with an antique SiS WiFi stick that ceased to be supported in Linux ever since the 2.6.x kernel series was released. That's more than 10 years of binary compatibility in Windows. So much for Linux being better suited for 'old hardware' if they have to be gotten rid of in half the time.

What part of "pure luck" is so hard for you to grasp? Unless Microsoft stated in their Windos XP EULA (which is the closest to a contract you have with them) that any driver written for that version of Windows will continue to work with all the future Windows versions in the next 10 years then it's just a coincidence.