[Cialug] Kernel?

[Matt Stanton]

I'll take a different viewpoint from the other Linux kernel fans (I am a fan, too, though!).  The MAINLINE Linux kernel is remarkably bug-free.  The Linux kernel that is found in just about any version of Android running on a mobile device is buggy as all hell.  The reason being that Samsung, LG, Asus, or whoever bring eMMC chips, USB HSICs, power management ICs, and a new collection of CPUs, media codec ICs, and GPUs with every new phone or tablet.  They don't bother contributing that code to the Linux mainline, so it never gets reviewed, and customers are left to think that (luckily) Android is to blame for crashing or hanging for seconds at a time.

That said, Linux is being kinda pushy about not accepting any code that doesn't use the device tree model, even if the kernel being used in the end product is pre-DT.  I know that some developers at (or possibly just users of boards created by)  Hardkernel (a company that uses Samsung's SoCs to build little ARM Android/Linux dev boards) have been working to try to get the kernels that Samsung provides converted to the DT spec.

So, I have seen a bunch of buggy ARM-oriented Linux kernels, but none of them were ever seen by the Linux kernel team.  They were derivative works based on the kernel, really.

-- Matt (N0BOX)

Sent from my ASUS Transformer

-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Wood <woodbrian77 at gmail.com>
To: cialug at cialug.org
Sent: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 9:45 PM
Subject: [Cialug] Kernel?

How would you describe or review the Linux kernel?  I read
a post today on a C++ newsgroup that described it as buggy.
The author of the post is a knowledgeable guy in my opinion.
I haven't found it to be buggy, but I wonder if it is.  Tia.

-- 
Brian
Ebenezer Enterprises
http://webEbenezer.net
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