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If you don't trust the web or the device, where will you get the driver? Why did you plug the device in the first place?

• comex 13y ago
  Perhaps the Linux kernel you already have installed, which presently has drivers for just about everything included and developed in a centralized, controlled fashion... Whether this is actually better probably depends on your point of view. But loading (somehow OS-neutral?) drivers from a fixed store on the device seems like a great way to be stuck with out-of-date binary blobs forever.
  • Sanddancer 13y ago
    Then again, there are cases where developers have and will release driver source out of tree so that new devices are supported on day one, or to avoid the politics of the linux kernel. Having a flash with a driver, even if it is an older one, could be a godsend for things like nics, where you can very easily end up in a catch-22 type situation.
  • nraynaud 13y ago
    That's why i proposed an URL, or an URL in the blob. Well, anything is better than the current situation. Moreover, in my current forey into USB, I discovered that kernel device drivers are completely unnecessary. And a google chrome API (or the underlying libusb) is completely good enough for proprietary devices.