Linux kernel compatability

Sean C. Farley scf at FreeBSD.org
Thu Jan 6 13:16:21 UTC 2011


On Wed, 5 Jan 2011, Andrey Chernov wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 05, 2011 at 12:40:45PM -0500, Alexander Kabaev wrote:
>>> I have heard this argument about the linuxulator and what we're 
>>> really talking about is slipping FreeBSD marketshare.  I don't share 
>>> the view that the linuxulator futhered this slip but rather my view 
>>> is that it allows us to stay relevant in areas where companies can 
>>> not justify an independent FreeBSD effort.  Adobe is a good example 
>>> of this.
>>
>> It compounded the Adobe's reluctance to work on portable flash player.
>
> I agree with Alexander even more. We don't need _any_ Linux emulator 
> in the tree and even in the ports. Flash player is a good example of 
> how Linux emulator is harmful: instead of sending tons of complaints 
> to Adobe to force them to make native FreeBSD version, users tends to 
> install Flash via emulator and got all its pain as result.

Well, there have been some requests[1] sent to Adobe for a native 
version especially after running Flash through emulation.  This is even 
after having to register to vote or attach a comment for the bug.  It is 
the fourth most popular Flash bug.

If anyone wants to vote for it, not just submit a comment to it, then I 
want to mention that two votes are (at least were) allowed per bug.  I 
should ask some people at work to vote for it.

> BTW, I have nothing against having source level Linux compatibility in
> some places, because resulting binary will be FreeBSD one in any case, but
> I'm strongly against executable binary compatibility level.

While you may be correct, there are some items to note:
1. Wine has not stopped Adobe from providing Linux binaries.
2. Nvidia[2] provided a FreeBSD driver and binaries after people were
    attempting to run the Linux driver in emulation.

Sean
   1. http://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FP-1060
   2. Thank you, Nvidia!
-- 
scf at FreeBSD.org


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