Yes, but if its in trade for something thats being used currently which hurts
more (case in point being the X server), using this solution is a net gain.
I'm not arguing with you that adding a low res gettimeofday vsyscall is a better
long term solution, but doing that requires potentially several implementations
in the C library accross a range of architectures, some of which may not be able
to provide a time solution any better than what the gettimeofday syscall
provides today. The /dev/rtc solution is easy, available right now, and applies
to all arches. It has zero impact for systems which do not use it, and for
those applications which make a decision to use it instead of an alternate
method, the result I expect will be a net gain, until such time as we code up,
test and roll out a vsyscall solution