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What's wrong with the kernel supporting a wide variety of hardware? As long as the stuff is actively maintained, I don't see a problem as this means it's actua

What's wrong with the kernel supporting a wide variety of hardware? As long as the stuff is actively maintained, I don't see a problem as this means it's actually being used. Linux always has had a very wide hardware support and if you are bothered about that, you can either use the make target "localmodconfig" or just don't build your kernels yourself.

stinos 6y ago
What's wrong with the kernel supporting a wide variety of hardware? I think you misunderstood my reply. I'm not saying the kernel should drop support, I'm merely replying to the 'doesn't bother anyone' with a practical example of why it might bother someone on a particular level.
- spoopyskelly 6y ago
  It bothers you that the kernel supports hardware you don't have?
  - cesarb 6y ago
    There was a time back in the 90s where one could go through every option in the Linux kernel config, and through every package in the dselect list (does anyone here still remember dselect?), and know what each one was for, and whether it should be selected or not. Nowadays, there are too many options for that (and for dselect, too many packages).
  - stinos 6y ago
    Again, no, that is not what bothers me. I'm not sure if I was really that unclear - twice - or if it's just because it's monday :) So here it goes, in full (similar to sibling poster cesarb's story): once you could, spending some time, just go over pretty much every possible option and select what you needed. Which mattered back then (at least to me), because compilation already took half a day on my machine so the less things to compile the better. Now over the years came more and more support for different hardware. That fact by itself obviously did not bother me, also because it meant I could finally hook up my insert not too common device here. What started to bother me was just that it took more time to go over all options. Whishful thinking because hard to implement, but I would have liked a flag like "ok you can just skip everything for harware which only existed before 1995 because I don't have that". So, reflecting on that period, I'm simply wondering what it must be like today to go through all options. I.e. I wonder if others might be bothered by the sheer amount of options out there.

stinos 6y ago

What's wrong with the kernel supporting a wide variety of hardware? I think you misunderstood my reply. I'm not saying the kernel should drop support, I'm merely replying to the 'doesn't bother anyone' with a practical example of why it might bother someone on a particular level.

spoopyskelly 6y ago
It bothers you that the kernel supports hardware you don't have?
- cesarb 6y ago
  There was a time back in the 90s where one could go through every option in the Linux kernel config, and through every package in the dselect list (does anyone here still remember dselect?), and know what each one was for, and whether it should be selected or not. Nowadays, there are too many options for that (and for dselect, too many packages).
- stinos 6y ago
  Again, no, that is not what bothers me. I'm not sure if I was really that unclear - twice - or if it's just because it's monday :) So here it goes, in full (similar to sibling poster cesarb's story): once you could, spending some time, just go over pretty much every possible option and select what you needed. Which mattered back then (at least to me), because compilation already took half a day on my machine so the less things to compile the better. Now over the years came more and more support for different hardware. That fact by itself obviously did not bother me, also because it meant I could finally hook up my insert not too common device here. What started to bother me was just that it took more time to go over all options. Whishful thinking because hard to implement, but I would have liked a flag like "ok you can just skip everything for harware which only existed before 1995 because I don't have that". So, reflecting on that period, I'm simply wondering what it must be like today to go through all options. I.e. I wonder if others might be bothered by the sheer amount of options out there.