Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2012 21:04:24 -0800 From: VDR User <user.vdr@gmail.com> To: Yuri <yuri@rawbw.com> Cc: freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org, Alexander Motin <mav@freebsd.org>, Dieter BSD <dieterbsd@engineer.com> Subject: Re: Support for "old" hardware (was:Re: kern/148741: [sound] Headphones are deaf (do not work) on Lenovo ThinkPad X300) Message-ID: <CAA7C2qiKN0G4hdL-CiN%2BC1McayfeUiGhqT1g4%2B9uda4c8PkCEw@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <50B568E7.5070305@rawbw.com> References: <20121127231130.106340@gmx.com> <CAA7C2qg4heza5mGdSspO5Sr%2B1_ytU_%2Bwnd_ONrrYsT4HJMXVcg@mail.gmail.com> <50B568E7.5070305@rawbw.com>
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On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 5:29 PM, Yuri <yuri@rawbw.com> wrote: >> You're being very dramatic and over-exaggerating. Also, Unix along >> with all of its spawn has gone through significant change over the >> years so if you're implying what people use today is the same thing >> they were using in the 70's then that's being blatantly dishonest. >> >> Maybe in a perfect world all hardware would be supported forever. But >> there comes a time when, for example, maintaining a driver becomes >> counter-productive because there simply isn't enough of a user-base to >> justify the resources spent doing so. Hardware evolves, software >> evolves, computers evolve -- if you don't want to evolve with it then >> continue to use the hardware & software from whatever era in computing >> history of your choosing so long as you understand the burden of >> supporting that stuff may ultimately rest on your shoulders. > > AC'97 is for ex. in Lenovo ThinkPad T60 that was still sold in 2007. It is > entirely possible that the same chipset was used in later models and maybe > is still in manufacturing. > Quick search on http://www.bsdstats.org/bt/devices/class/04/subclass/01.html > reveals that quite a few systems still use AC'97, particularly "82801AA 8xx > Chipset AC'97 Audio Controller" is listed as used 631 times and in fact is > the most frequently used particular type of the audio device listed on BSD > stats website. My comments were meant to be taken in a general sense, hence why nothing specific was mentioned. There are plenty of examples of old hardware still in use, but that isn't really what I was addressing. > I only wish more people shared their hardware with BSD stats. > Also this T60 may be obsolete by the latest and greatest standards, but is > still a very capable system, can easily run BSD or Linux and would be > totally sufficient for someone who only needs to browse the web and check > e-mail (read 95% of people). Yes, indeed. We passed the tipping point along time ago where computers became `over-powered` in regards to most users needs. I fully believe in and support pc recycling. However, you do get to a point where it becomes unreasonable to continue to support old hardware within new software because it's simply not a good use of resources to do so. Should a person spend their valued time wrestling to keep old hardware working? I don't know a whole lot of devs who say yes to that question. There's a reason support for old stuff decays or flat out gets thrown in the trash. If you choose to drive a 20 year old car, you've got to accept the fact that there will likely be some issues using it.
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