From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jul 21 14:32:17 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2565F1065677 for ; Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:32:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from perrin@apotheon.com) Received: from oproxy5-pub.bluehost.com (oproxy5-pub.bluehost.com [67.222.38.55]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id E66548FC20 for ; Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:32:16 +0000 (UTC) Received: (qmail 25165 invoked by uid 0); 21 Jul 2011 14:32:16 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO box543.bluehost.com) (74.220.219.143) by cpoproxy2.bluehost.com with SMTP; 21 Jul 2011 14:32:16 -0000 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=default; d=apotheon.com; h=Date:From:To:Subject:Message-ID:Mail-Followup-To:References:Mime-Version:Content-Type:Content-Disposition:In-Reply-To:User-Agent:X-Identified-User; b=KO2EkDxq4XE4/+kmbPSSlz6fnqN44BD/cRhzYWStlBR75fKOpZebQvKkSfxW9CxbckP/AlR4GHmHXSer27M288Celn27lTlSXO0Ec2iY/24EF6nsyWLfZMdjq3ohaaNc; Received: from c-24-8-180-234.hsd1.co.comcast.net ([24.8.180.234] helo=kukaburra.hydra) by box543.bluehost.com with esmtpsa (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256) (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1QjuIR-00048d-82 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Thu, 21 Jul 2011 08:32:16 -0600 Received: by kukaburra.hydra (sSMTP sendmail emulation); Thu, 21 Jul 2011 08:15:34 -0600 Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2011 08:15:34 -0600 From: Chad Perrin To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20110721141534.GC59455@guilt.hydra> Mail-Followup-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <24466_1311199850_4E27526A_24466_7987_1_D9B37353831173459FDAA836D3B43499C521866E@WADPMBXV0.waddell.com> <4e28160e.bVryeJCK1esNt615%perryh@pluto.rain.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="z4+8/lEcDcG5Ke9S" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.3i X-Identified-User: {2737:box543.bluehost.com:apotheon:apotheon.org} {sentby:smtp auth 24.8.180.234 authed with ren@apotheon.org} Subject: Re: 2020: Will BSD and Linux be relevant anymore? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2011 14:32:17 -0000 --z4+8/lEcDcG5Ke9S Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 10:52:28AM +0200, C. P. Ghost wrote: >=20 > I'm not familiar with Windows, but I don't think a typical windows > driver as written by a hardware vendor would manipulate the windows > kernel internals (data structures) directly, right? If that's correct, > we "merely" need to catch the ABI up- and down-calls from and to the > windows driver, and translate them into regular FreeBSD syscalls (maybe > augmented by a compat helper library?). >=20 > Since this is exactly the approach taken by the Linuxulator, I fail to > see why a similar method hasn't been tried for those windows kernel > driver (binary blobs). Maybe some artificial restrictions like, say, > patents are standing in the way? Or a technical restriction like such > binary blobs being encrypted with a public key, and only usable from > Windows kernel with their own secret key? It may not be anything so exotic. On a per-release basis, the MS Windows ABIs and APIs change far more dramatically than the Linux kernel, and are far less transparent to developers; they must in many cases be discovered by experimentation, being closed source software. Over a given period of time, the changes to Linux may be greater in number and magnitude (I'm not a kernel hacker, so I wouldn't know for sure), but they're spread out over time rather than bundled in a major collection of changes with a new marketing campaign. This might make it much more difficult to target the MS Windows ABIs and APIs. I'm just speculating, though. As I said, I'm not a kernel hacker. --=20 Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ] --z4+8/lEcDcG5Ke9S Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.14 (FreeBSD) iEYEARECAAYFAk4oNIYACgkQ9mn/Pj01uKVhZgCfeAppv2/IcrwmVxpXIbfopMop ghYAn2M/UaTy7sJAHh2VH0hTam9PAbPv =h5TR -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --z4+8/lEcDcG5Ke9S--