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List:       9fans
Subject:    Re: [9fans] OT: linux complexity trends
From:       "Thomas Bushnell, BSG" <tb+usenet () becket ! net>
Date:       2001-11-27 10:16:31
Message-ID: 877kscww8d.fsf () becket ! becket ! net
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cross@math.psu.edu (Dan Cross) writes:

> I guess I'm having a hard time understanding the point.  Memory being
> as cheap as it is [*], why not just keep the drivers loaded all the time?
> Is this to avoid inter-driver conflicts or to better support PCMCIA
> devices or something?

The usual reason for dynamically loadable device drivers is for:

Systems with easily pluggable hardware (USB, PCMCIA)
Systems where it's beneficial to run one kernel for a bunch of
  machines with divergent hardware.

Such systems need all the drivers available, in principle, all the
time, but only a minority will be needed at any one point in time.  If
all the supported hardware drivers are loaded at once, you do get
considerable bloat.  There are a *lot* of hardware devices out there;
a kernel with device drivers compiled in for all of them would be
insanely huge.

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