> > support for XT hard disk controllers
>
> This isnt obsolete, there is no better replacement driver. There is a clear
> and important distinction between extfs (move to ext2) and XT disk
> controller which you can't go swap as easily.
Precisely. Alan has made a point that is very important for the
understanding the whole 'obsolete' issue: There is a _big_ distinction
between the kernel suppoorting obsolete _software features_ and hardware
which is _considered_ obsolete.
Obsolete software feautures could be ones that
have been replaced by either newer versions of the same software (like
VoxWare drivers updating from 2.0 to 3.0 etc. extfs to ext2fs is also a
reasonable exmple of this, because extfs does not offer anything that
ext2fs doesn't have. Xiafs is not quite the same; it is a stable fs
implementation, from what I've heard, and people are still using it. But
as it isn't really needed to provide support for other U**X variants-
like the upcoming ufs port, its use could be legitimately deprecated.)
However, removing support for drivers for very old, hence 'obsolete' hardware
devices would hurt one of the main selling points of Linux: Support for
minimalist, low-end hardware, IMHO. Somebody using and old '386 with 4MB
RAM as a router with NE1000 cards, backed up on a QIC-02 tape streamer
would be very annoyed if he had to try and find these things if he wanted
to install a new stable kernel release. And the only reason people still
have 3c501s or XT HD controllers is because a free, or $2 card is still
better than one for $20 in terms of economy, if high performance is not
the issue.
Just my $0.02 worth,
Dirk
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| / _ \ _ _| __ \ Dirk Niggemann
' / | | | | | Jesus College
. \ __ < | | | Cambridge, CB58BL
_|\_\_| \_\___|____/ dabn100@cam.ac.uk
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