Re: Adding new device support

[Roland McGrath]

> The next question is "how long is gnumach going to play catch-up with
> linux?" Is it going to be necessary to port new versions of linux every
> few years or will gnumach eventually have its own way of doing things?

What makes you think that having "its own way of doing things" would be a
way to spend less time playing catch-up rather than more?  

Using Linux drivers is a good thing, not a bad thing, unless you are really
into spending all your time writing drivers.  For every device that comes
along, somebody somewhere is into spending their time writing a Linux
driver for it.  If we can plop that in, we get to use all the devices and
we don't have to spend all our time writing device drivers.

> I thought I read that the OSKit was no longer supported. Putting a lot of
> effort into a dead-end is what I'm trying to avoid.

I don't know where you got that idea.  The OSKit is just as "supported" now
as it ever was.  The Flux Project at the University of Utah maintains it
for the purposes of its other research, but makes no more guarantees about
support than anyone else producing free software does.  But at least they
are funded by research grants.  Everybody working on Hurd or gnumach is an
unpaid volunteer, and we make even fewer claims of support.  I mean, if I
stop being such a shut-in take up a new weekend sport or hobby, you can
kiss this whole shebang goodbye. ;-)