Kroah-Hartman: Remove Hyper-V Driver from Kernel?
Microsoft caused a sensation with its release of its Hyper-V virtualization driver -- now its inclusion in the Linux kernel could be in doubt.
In the gmane.linux.kernel newsgroup, lead driver developer Kroah-Hartman announced the state of drivers in the kernel staging tree, which ones will come and which will go. As he says, "If
no one steps up to maintain and work to get the code merged into the main portion of the kernel, the drivers will be removed," as drivers/staging/ is no "dumping ground for dead code." Next to some Android and WLAN drivers, Microsoft's Hyper-V driver is definitely among those that could be dropped.
Redmond's driver seems to have cost the kernel team quite a bit. Kroah-Hartman writes that it took over 200 patches to get the code "into semi-sane kernel coding style," apparently mostly through his personal effort ("someone owes me a bit [sic] bottle of rum for that work!"). The main problem, however, is the total unresponsiveness of the Microsoft team: "Unfortunately the Microsoft developers seem to have disappeared, and no one is answering my emails. If they do not show back up to claim this driver soon, it will be removed in the 2.6.33 release. So sad...."
The situation is especially sad for Kroah-Hartman in that it was mostly through his effort that Microsoft put the code under GPL. The Hyper-V driver will nevertheless still appear in the 2.6.32 kernel, as he writes in the newsgroup.
The linux-staging developer tree has been around since June 2008. It contains drivers in early development that are tested and cleaned up for the main kernel.
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I'm clueless and even I understand
So, is Microsoft trying to play more games here? "See, we tried to participate in open source, but they would accept our contributions."
Remove Hyper-V driver from kernel?
Ultimately it's those wanting to use Linux who suffer as a result of this mentality. Throwing the Hyper-V drivers out will send a very clear message to third parties that there is no point sharing driver code with the FOSS community, because its just going to get thrown back in your face. Meanwhile, Windows on Hyper-V looks a more and more promising server infrastructure, eating into the one market where Linux has traditionally been strong.
"gmane.linux.kernel newsgroup"