Re: Why not make Linux source modular?
Linus Torvalds (Linus.Torvalds@cs.helsinki.fi)
Sun, 25 Feb 1996 11:22:09 +0200
Mailing List Receiver: "Re: Why not make Linux source modular?" (Feb 23, 15:48):
>
> On Wed, 21 Feb 1996 cs95rro@brunel.ac.uk wrote:
>
> > OK, this is sort of a continuation of the Linus overworked thread. It's also
> > probably been discussed before, so feel free to flame me if I'm being a
> > complete idiot. :-)
> >
> > My point is this: Why is Linux kernel source distributed as one big lump?
> >
> > Many of the drivers could be distributed seperatly as modules, such as file
> > system drivers, some Networking protocols, Net cards etc... and have different
> > people maintaining them. Ftape already does this, and it works. (Although
> > he is mumbling about integrating it with the kernel...)
>
> I, for one, prefer having things integrated into the kernel. This way,
> I can always be sure that I have the newest drivers. It also helps
> reduce problems that might be caused by having a nonstandard
> installation.
One _major_ advantage as having it all in one lump is that when I change
some interface, I can then fix all the pieces that use that interface,
rather than just tell people who maintain all the pieces to fix it.
Believe me, it makes things a _lot_ easier.
(Of course, that kind of changes do not happen often, but when they do
it's traumatic enough even without any added synchronization problems).
Linus