Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2011 08:15:34 -0600 From: Chad Perrin <perrin@apotheon.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 2020: Will BSD and Linux be relevant anymore? Message-ID: <20110721141534.GC59455@guilt.hydra> In-Reply-To: <CADGWnjXjtZwXPdFQJ8dFfZ_bG8hSp6LiJt4QvsSbS7umYG=EqQ@mail.gmail.com> References: <alpine.BSF.2.00.1107190736560.27391@gwdu60.gwdg.de> <CAGy-%2Bi_phtNbTh7SHhockqTuGrv%2Bd2ZLn0_6A9aKEySYO0MgTw@mail.gmail.com> <24466_1311199850_4E27526A_24466_7987_1_D9B37353831173459FDAA836D3B43499C521866E@WADPMBXV0.waddell.com> <4e28160e.bVryeJCK1esNt615%perryh@pluto.rain.com> <CADGWnjXjtZwXPdFQJ8dFfZ_bG8hSp6LiJt4QvsSbS7umYG=EqQ@mail.gmail.com>
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--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--
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