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Wow, this is sad news indeed for the world at large, but also me personally. I'm suddenly in deep regret for having procrastinated reaching out the thank him.

Wow, this is sad news indeed for the world at large, but also me personally. I'm suddenly in deep regret for having procrastinated reaching out the thank him. He doesn't know this, but he was somewhat of a mentor for me. In the early 00s I bought a laptop that had an RTL 8188 CE card in it that ran awful under Linux. I forked his driver and made a number of changes to it and eventually got my wifi working really well (by doing things that could never be upstreamed due to legal/regulatory restrictions). Over the years I rebased often and reviewed the changes, and learned a lot from watching his code. It took a bit of getting used to, but a certain amount of beauty and appreciation emerged. One thing was very clear: This man was doing a lot of the work to keep the ship together. Even just keeping the driver compilable with each kernel release often took some non-trivial refactoring, which he did reliably and well. Larry, you will be missed my friend. RIP. If you are waiting to reach out to somebody, don't wait too long or it may suddenly be too late. The years can slip by in a flash.

maCDzP 2y ago
This is what makes me come to HN every single day.
- nanna 2y ago
  This is what makes me come here every single minute my anti-procastination setting allows me to.
  - refulgentis 2y ago
    This is what makes me delete my anti-procrastination setting and quit my job to spend more time here.
freedomben 2y ago
Found a small typo, but it's too late to edit the original. I meant early 2010s (not early 00s)
exe34 2y ago
> Even just keeping the driver compilable with each kernel release often took some non-trivial refactoring, I realise that the kernel contributors themselves are mostly volunteers and as such can just do what they want, and writers of non-upstreamed drivers will need to get used to chasing trunk, but to me this sort of thing seems like a waste of human talent. once something works, it should never not work again. it seems to me that despite all the layers of cruft that we've accumulated over the decades haven't really helped much with this, in fact they probably mean more work just to stay still.
- freedomben 2y ago
  I've struggled philosophically with that very question as well (especially having to update my own WORKING code just to conform to API changes), and I'm very torn on it. I just don't think there's a good point to pick at which to "freeze" the API and say no more changes are allowed. It would greatly hamper innovation and IMHO ultimately lead the Linux kernel having major forks or being displaced by something more adaptable. Despite the pain points, I think it's an overall good, though that doesn't stop the stinging of having to keep up. It really forces you to either be in or out. It can be very difficult to be a part time contributor.
  - exe34 2y ago
    I've always wondered about how versioning could help. i don't think it would work with a monolithic kernel, but a microkernel might allow you to run multiple versions of different things, and they would still work. I've also fantasised about the same thing in application programming languages - e.g. the way racket runs loads of different dialects, you could also have versioning for different things running at the same time.
    - dTal 2y ago
      POV-Ray does exactly this, and warns you if you do not include a #version statement in your source file.
  - Aerbil313 2y ago
nar001 2y ago
What things did you do that weren't legal to make your WiFi work better?
- 0x7cfe 2y ago
  Probably increasing maximum tx power or extending the frequency range beyond allowed in the region to enable more channels and hence being able to get decent speed/quality in a crowded area. These things are illegal for a reason.
- freedomben 2y ago
  Increasing the cap on max transmit power. I compared the output of that card to other cards using my spectrum analyzer, and max tx on that card was extremely weak compared to the others.
sibellavia 2y ago
it's really nice to read comments like this one. thanks for sharing it. don't feel too regretful or guilty, things can happen.
noSyncCloud 2y ago
Thanks for sharing your story, it meant a lot to me today.

maCDzP 2y ago

This is what makes me come to HN every single day.

nanna 2y ago
This is what makes me come here every single minute my anti-procastination setting allows me to.
- refulgentis 2y ago
  This is what makes me delete my anti-procrastination setting and quit my job to spend more time here.

freedomben 2y ago

Found a small typo, but it's too late to edit the original. I meant early 2010s (not early 00s)

exe34 2y ago

> Even just keeping the driver compilable with each kernel release often took some non-trivial refactoring, I realise that the kernel contributors themselves are mostly volunteers and as such can just do what they want, and writers of non-upstreamed drivers will need to get used to chasing trunk, but to me this sort of thing seems like a waste of human talent. once something works, it should never not work again. it seems to me that despite all the layers of cruft that we've accumulated over the decades haven't really helped much with this, in fact they probably mean more work just to stay still.

freedomben 2y ago
I've struggled philosophically with that very question as well (especially having to update my own WORKING code just to conform to API changes), and I'm very torn on it. I just don't think there's a good point to pick at which to "freeze" the API and say no more changes are allowed. It would greatly hamper innovation and IMHO ultimately lead the Linux kernel having major forks or being displaced by something more adaptable. Despite the pain points, I think it's an overall good, though that doesn't stop the stinging of having to keep up. It really forces you to either be in or out. It can be very difficult to be a part time contributor.
- exe34 2y ago
  I've always wondered about how versioning could help. i don't think it would work with a monolithic kernel, but a microkernel might allow you to run multiple versions of different things, and they would still work. I've also fantasised about the same thing in application programming languages - e.g. the way racket runs loads of different dialects, you could also have versioning for different things running at the same time.
  - dTal 2y ago
    POV-Ray does exactly this, and warns you if you do not include a #version statement in your source file.
- Aerbil313 2y ago

nar001 2y ago

What things did you do that weren't legal to make your WiFi work better?

0x7cfe 2y ago
Probably increasing maximum tx power or extending the frequency range beyond allowed in the region to enable more channels and hence being able to get decent speed/quality in a crowded area. These things are illegal for a reason.
freedomben 2y ago
Increasing the cap on max transmit power. I compared the output of that card to other cards using my spectrum analyzer, and max tx on that card was extremely weak compared to the others.

sibellavia 2y ago

it's really nice to read comments like this one. thanks for sharing it. don't feel too regretful or guilty, things can happen.

noSyncCloud 2y ago

Thanks for sharing your story, it meant a lot to me today.