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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!qns3.qns.com!imci4!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.mathworks.com!uhog.mit.edu!grapevine.lcs.mit.edu!nntp.neu.edu!camelot.ccs.neu.edu!camelot.ccs.neu.edu!albert From: albert@krakatoa.ccs.neu.edu (Albert Cahalan) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy Subject: Re: Historic Opportunity facing Free Unix (was Re: The Lai/Baker paper, benchmarks, and the world of free UNIX) Date: 16 Apr 1996 18:53:42 GMT Organization: Northeastern University, College of Computer Science Lines: 28 Message-ID: <ALBERT.96Apr16145342@krakatoa.ccs.neu.edu> References: <4ki055$60l@Radon.Stanford.EDU> <jdd.829261293@cdf.toronto.edu> <yfglok14n5r.fsf@time.cdrom.com> <31702487.420C2193@lambert.org> <4ktqsh$iu4@helena.MT.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: krakatoa.ccs.neu.edu In-reply-to: nate@trout.sri.MT.net's message of 15 Apr 1996 15:44:17 GMT Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.system:21430 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:605 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:3217 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:3034 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:17399 comp.os.linux.advocacy:45616 >>>>> "N" == Nate Williams <nate@trout.sri.MT.net> writes: N> Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> wrote: >> >> This one is easier; it is completely technical, and I have tried to push it >> in a large number of comercial organizations, including Novell USG (the >> former USL) without success: >> >> 1) Move the DDX code for per-card drivers into the kernel. N> Augh.... This is evil, and causes the kernel to bloat excessively. N> Even in WNT, the pig that it is doesn't do this. Some people already run an experimental Linux patch that does this. It provides security and stability. Ever had the X server crash? That happened to me while viewing a 1500x2000 24-bit image without enough swap space. The crash leaves you without a console. What about DOOM for SVGAlib? You need to run the SVGAlib version if your system is not _really_ fast, but it must run as root. Since you can't get the source code, you just have to trust it. I'll tell you what is evil. Imagine an application that runs as root so that it can bypass the kernel drivers and bang on the hardware directly, just like in DOS. That's your X server. -- Albert Cahalan albert@ccs.neu.edu