FCP-0101: Deprecating most 10/100 Ethernet drivers

[Bakul Shah]

On Wed, 03 Oct 2018 21:05:16 -0000 Brooks Davis <brooks at freebsd.org> wrote:
> 
> The current list of drivers slated for REMOVAL is:
>
> ae, bfe, bm, cs, dme, ed, ep, ex, fe, pcn, rl, sf, smc, sn,
> ste, tl, tx, txp, vx, wb, xe
>
> The current list of drivers that will STAY in the tree is:
>
> dc, ffec, fxpl, hme, le, sis, vr, xl

What is the disposition of drivers not on either list?

> 10 and 100 megabit Ethernet drivers are largely irrelevant today
> and we have a significant number of them in the tree.  The ones that
> are no longer used and/or are not known to be working need to be
> removed due to the significant ongoing 'tax' on new development.

I don't understand why there is a "significant ongoing 'tax'
on new development" for old NICs.  Can the internal MI<->MD
interface be evolved in the direction where the MD drivers for
old h/w "just work"? Or is it a hopeless task?