rtl8192e: why do we need two drivers

[Greg KH]

On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 09:49:30AM -0500, Alex Deucher wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 27, 2010 at 5:21 AM, John Talbut <jt at dpets.co.uk> wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > I suspect the reason why we have two drivers is that Realtek choose to
> > develop out of tree drivers instead of collaborating with the kernel
> > developers to get proper in kernel drivers.  I do not see the logic in their
> > doing this, it does the reputation of their company no good and it is more
> > trouble for everyone involved.
> 
> Likely they do it because they have an OS abstraction layer and it
> allows them to share the same source code between several different
> OSes and OS versions.  It is a lot of work  to have to write and
> update multiple versions of a driver for different OSes, especially if
> you have limited development resources.  It does Linux no good to bad
> mouth these companies when they provide working Linux drivers with
> source code.  What advantage does writing a "native" Linux driver
> provide for them other than extra maintenance work?

The driver has a chance of working properly that way :)

Seriously, "os abstraction layers", don't work well, if at all, in Linux
for the long-run as a development model.  All of the hardware companies
realize this, and are slowly moving away from them, it's just taking
some a little bit longer than others.

Patience,

greg k-h