Comment by Wowfunhappy
6 years ago
> But it is a problem that you can't reliably have out-of-tree modules.
That is the bit I'm trying to get at. Yes it would be best if ZFS was just part of Linux, and maybe some day it can be after Oracle is dead and gone (or under a new leadership and strategy). But it's almost beside the point.
Every other OS supports installing drivers that aren't "part" of the OS. I don't understand why Linux is so hostile to this very real use case. Sure it's not ideal, but the world is full of compromises.
I'm not sure Linux is especially hostile. A new OS version of, say, Windows can absolutely break drivers from a previous version.
Linux absolutely is especially hostile. Windows will generally try to support existing drivers, even binary-only ones, and give plenty of notice for API changes. FreeBSD has dedicated compatibility with previous ABIs going several versions back. Linux explicitly refuses to offer any kind of stability for its API (i.e. they can and will break APIs even in minor patches), yet alone ABI.
Linux is generally not happy about seeing any out of tree drivers.
But that is also not without reason, in a certain way Linux balances in a field where they are and want to stay open source. But a lot of users (and someteimes the companies paying some "contributors", too) are companies which are not always that happy about open source. So if it's easy to not put drivers under permissive licenses and still get a good experience out of it they will have very little sensitive to ever make any in-tree GBL drivers and Linux would run at risk of becoming a skeleton you can't use without accepting/buying drivers from multiple 3rd parties.
Through take that argument with a (large) grain of salt, there are counter arguments for it, too. E.g. the LLVM project with is much more permissive and still maintained well, but then is also a very different kind of software.