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I don't want to grow a kernel. Linux grows by 2M LOC a year, as reported by the author of the video. That's just what happens.

by kvark 5y ago

Alupis 5y ago
Most of that is driver code... and a lot of new devices and do-hickeys are created every year. Seems normal, given you can plug just about anything into a linux system and it "just works".
- kvark 5y ago
  That's the problem. The system is very centralized. Drivers have to be constantly upstreamed to the kernel. Any other way introduces a ton of pain for all involved, since Linux has no binary compatibility guarantees. Compare it to Windows NT kernel, which only have a few essential drivers in it, but you can go online and download drivers for anything you need, and it mostly works out of the box.
  - Alupis 5y ago
    What is the problem, exactly? As a user, it's completely transparent to me. Besides, not 100% of the drivers are upstreamed... see Nvidia for example. It just means nearly 100% of hardware works out of the box with zero fuss or configuration. The same really cannot be said about Windows, which sometimes still requires drivers just to see hard disks during the install.
    - kvark 5y ago
      NVidia in particular has been painful to update on my laptop, and it doesn't work well with the rest of the system.
      - Alupis 5y ago
        Yes, unfortunately they continue to stick with proprietary, what seems like afterthought, linux drivers that must be manually installed.
    - watermelon0 5y ago
      This doesn't really mean much to most people, since 99% of drivers are for obsolete or rarely used hardware. If you have recent enough devices, experience is much better on Windows. When I built a new PC about a year ago, installation of Windows was a breeze, and all drivers were automatically installed. Whereas on Linux side, I've tried latest version of two popular Linux distributions (Ubuntu and another one I cannot remember), and they didn't even have the network adapter drivers. After spending some time I just gave up, because it was not trivial to fix it.
  - jcelerier 5y ago
    TBH I really really hate having to do driver updates on windows, vs linux which JustWorksTM

I don't want to grow a kernel. Linux grows by 2M LOC a year, as reported by the author of the video. That's just what happens.

by kvark 5y ago

I don't want to grow a kernel. Linux grows by 2M LOC a year, as reported by the author of the video. That's just what happens.

Alupis 5y ago

Most of that is driver code... and a lot of new devices and do-hickeys are created every year. Seems normal, given you can plug just about anything into a linux system and it "just works".

kvark 5y ago
That's the problem. The system is very centralized. Drivers have to be constantly upstreamed to the kernel. Any other way introduces a ton of pain for all involved, since Linux has no binary compatibility guarantees. Compare it to Windows NT kernel, which only have a few essential drivers in it, but you can go online and download drivers for anything you need, and it mostly works out of the box.
- Alupis 5y ago
  What is the problem, exactly? As a user, it's completely transparent to me. Besides, not 100% of the drivers are upstreamed... see Nvidia for example. It just means nearly 100% of hardware works out of the box with zero fuss or configuration. The same really cannot be said about Windows, which sometimes still requires drivers just to see hard disks during the install.
  - kvark 5y ago
    NVidia in particular has been painful to update on my laptop, and it doesn't work well with the rest of the system.
    - Alupis 5y ago
      Yes, unfortunately they continue to stick with proprietary, what seems like afterthought, linux drivers that must be manually installed.
  - watermelon0 5y ago
    This doesn't really mean much to most people, since 99% of drivers are for obsolete or rarely used hardware. If you have recent enough devices, experience is much better on Windows. When I built a new PC about a year ago, installation of Windows was a breeze, and all drivers were automatically installed. Whereas on Linux side, I've tried latest version of two popular Linux distributions (Ubuntu and another one I cannot remember), and they didn't even have the network adapter drivers. After spending some time I just gave up, because it was not trivial to fix it.
- jcelerier 5y ago
  TBH I really really hate having to do driver updates on windows, vs linux which JustWorksTM