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While Linux is faster and more scalable, Using BSD like Apple has many advantrges - especially when there are thousands of closed-source windows drivers which w
by innagadadavida 8y ago
While Linux is faster and more scalable, Using BSD like Apple has many advantrges - especially when there are thousands of closed-source windows drivers which will never be released as open source. The other big hurdle is the sad state of Linux graphical facilities in the kernel. For Apple, this was never a problem due to limited hardware choices.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y agoWell if I were them I'd implement my own stable driver ABI so companies wouldn't be forced to open source them (like it really makes a difference anyway with all the firmware blobs) and you wouldn't have to recompile every single driver for every single kernel revision. I'd also move more stuff into user space like they did in Windows, which is why a video or sound driver crash usually just wigs out the screen for a second instead of crashing the whole system. Given that, maybe it would also be possible to implement a compatibility layer so some amount of current Windows drivers could be used anyway. I don't know if that's feasible, but if it is they're in a position to pull it off.
- bpye 8y agoThere is a project called NDISWrapper which attempts to do that. It used to be used quite a bit for WiFi drivers before Linux had decent WiFi drivers for most chipsets.
- innagadadavida 8y agoNot likely to happen - not very long ago, MS likened GPL to a virus. Since then, they have changed a lot, but fundamentally, they need to protect vendors interests, IP, profitability - not appease some open source proponents.