Wanna give me a hand debunking this?

[Les Mikesell]

Jeff Spaleta wrote:

>> The kernel's job is to provide a stable hardware-independent interface.
> 
> I'm pretty sure the the kernel's upstream developers don't agree with
> you on that.
> A stable ABI hasn't been a "feature" of upstream kernel development...ever.

On the user side it is - otherwise you can't come close to posix or any 
other standard that applications are developed to.

>>   It doesn't have to keep changing to do that, particularly on hardware
>> that doesn't change, although it does need security/bugfix updates. The
>> concepts of open()/read()/write()/ioctl() never change. Applications, on
>> the other hand, are always being improved.
> 
> Are you calling the development that the upstream kernel developers
> do... not improvements? I think you just insulted the upstream kernel
> developers.

They are improvements to whatever extent they enable new hardware to be 
used, but that is very much irrelevant on an existing, working box. I 
don't mind installing a new version when I get a new machine that needs 
it.  Isn't it more of an insult to say that yesterday's kernel isn't 
usable?  Or last week's, or last year's? I think mostly the same people 
wrote them all - although they used to sensibly insulate the users from 
their changes by supplying stable and development versions, 
understanding that changes will likely break things.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com