Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:10:49 -0500 From: Gary Gatten <Ggatten@waddell.com> To: "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: RE: 2020: Will BSD and Linux be relevant anymore? Message-ID: <24466_1311199850_4E27526A_24466_7987_1_D9B37353831173459FDAA836D3B43499C521866E@WADPMBXV0.waddell.com> In-Reply-To: <CAGy-%2Bi_phtNbTh7SHhockqTuGrv%2Bd2ZLn0_6A9aKEySYO0MgTw@mail.gmail.com> References: <alpine.BSF.2.00.1107190736560.27391@gwdu60.gwdg.de> <CAGy-%2Bi_phtNbTh7SHhockqTuGrv%2Bd2ZLn0_6A9aKEySYO0MgTw@mail.gmail.com>
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<snip> Regarding drivers / hardware support... I'm not a huge fan of abstraction layers, in fact I hate them, BUT - does t= here exist or could an AL (HAL) be developed to hide the OS from the driver= so hardware manufacturers can more easily write drivers? For example, can= a HAL be developed that runs on BSD that "emulates" Winblow$ such that any= driver written for Winblow$ will "work" on *BSD? Granted it may not be as= efficient as a native driver but perhaps it would have these benefits: 1.) Would work "good enough" for most people in most circumstances. Perhap= s it's slightly slower (insert metric of choice) than a native driver, but = all but the most demanding users (top 10%?) won't care. The most demanding= users will probably take the time / effort to acquire supported hardware a= nd have the technical skills to accomplish what they need to. 2.) Would give BSD developers a starting place for reverse engineering / en= gineering a native driver. Instead of making the hardware people write dri= vers for BSD, they write for Winblow$ - but provide the source? The *BSD d= udes (dudettes) can take that and tweak as necessary. The hope is no one w= ould have to do 100% of the work, especially reverse engineering without mu= ch doc / etc - that must suck! Something in the back of my head says there was / is something along this l= ine already available or in the works, but I can't recall for sure. Anyway... I think someone else mentioned dividing up the "donations" such = that one could select which development area receives ones funds. I think = this would be a good idea... If I'm more interested in ZFS than wireless N= IC drivers - I can contribute to the filesystem/ZFS area. Perhaps this wou= ld also yield more donations - if one feels there funds will be going to su= pport their specific needs... G <font size=3D"1"> <div style=3D'border:none;border-bottom:double windowtext 2.25pt;padding:0i= n 0in 1.0pt 0in'> </div> "This email is intended to be reviewed by only the intended recipient and may contain information that is privileged and/or confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any review, use, dissemination, disclosure or copying of this email and its attachments, if any, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please immediately notify the sender by return email and delete this email from your system." </font>
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