FBDEV Is Still Chugging Along With Linux 4.11

It's going on five years since there was the call for deprecating FBDEV within the mainline Linux kernel and various ongoing efforts to get more drivers to making use of the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) rather than FBDEV. But with Linux 4.11, FBDEV still remains in place.

The Linux kernel had lost its FBDEV maintainer last year while now Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz is managing the role at least for Linux 4.11. Last year was also the effort to eliminate the FBDEV drivers in staging but that has yet to be acted upon with some not preferring that approach unless there be suitable DRM driver alternatives for the affected hardware. At the end of the day, FBDEV is still there and scratching along in the latest Linux kernel releases.

Zolnierkiewicz a few days back sent in the FBDEV changes for Linux 4.11. The FBDEV changes for Linux 4.11 just include a few fixes and improvements to some of the existing drivers. Those interested in the FBDEV work for Linux 4.11 can see the pull request.