1*edba5eecSFederico Vaga.. _process_statement_driver: 2*edba5eecSFederico Vaga 313277782SGreg Kroah-HartmanKernel Driver Statement 413277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman----------------------- 513277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman 613277782SGreg Kroah-HartmanPosition Statement on Linux Kernel Modules 713277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman========================================== 813277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman 913277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman 1013277782SGreg Kroah-HartmanWe, the undersigned Linux kernel developers, consider any closed-source 1113277782SGreg Kroah-HartmanLinux kernel module or driver to be harmful and undesirable. We have 1213277782SGreg Kroah-Hartmanrepeatedly found them to be detrimental to Linux users, businesses, and 1313277782SGreg Kroah-Hartmanthe greater Linux ecosystem. Such modules negate the openness, 1413277782SGreg Kroah-Hartmanstability, flexibility, and maintainability of the Linux development 1513277782SGreg Kroah-Hartmanmodel and shut their users off from the expertise of the Linux 1613277782SGreg Kroah-Hartmancommunity. Vendors that provide closed-source kernel modules force their 1713277782SGreg Kroah-Hartmancustomers to give up key Linux advantages or choose new vendors. 1813277782SGreg Kroah-HartmanTherefore, in order to take full advantage of the cost savings and 1913277782SGreg Kroah-Hartmanshared support benefits open source has to offer, we urge vendors to 2013277782SGreg Kroah-Hartmanadopt a policy of supporting their customers on Linux with open-source 2113277782SGreg Kroah-Hartmankernel code. 2213277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman 2313277782SGreg Kroah-HartmanWe speak only for ourselves, and not for any company we might work for 2413277782SGreg Kroah-Hartmantoday, have in the past, or will in the future. 2513277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman 2613277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Dave Airlie 2713277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Nick Andrew 2813277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jens Axboe 2913277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Ralf Baechle 3013277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Felipe Balbi 3113277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Ohad Ben-Cohen 3213277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Muli Ben-Yehuda 3313277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jiri Benc 3413277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Arnd Bergmann 3513277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Thomas Bogendoerfer 3613277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Vitaly Bordug 3713277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - James Bottomley 3813277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Josh Boyer 3913277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Neil Brown 4013277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Mark Brown 4113277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - David Brownell 4213277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Michael Buesch 4313277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Franck Bui-Huu 4413277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Adrian Bunk 4513277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - François Cami 4613277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Ralph Campbell 4713277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Luiz Fernando N. Capitulino 4813277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Mauro Carvalho Chehab 4913277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Denis Cheng 5013277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jonathan Corbet 5113277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Glauber Costa 5213277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Alan Cox 5313277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Magnus Damm 5413277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Ahmed S. Darwish 5513277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Robert P. J. Day 5613277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Hans de Goede 5713277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo 5813277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Helge Deller 5913277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jean Delvare 6013277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Mathieu Desnoyers 6113277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Sven-Thorsten Dietrich 6213277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Alexey Dobriyan 6313277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Daniel Drake 6413277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Alex Dubov 6513277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Randy Dunlap 6613277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Michael Ellerman 6713277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Pekka Enberg 6813277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jan Engelhardt 6913277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Mark Fasheh 7013277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - J. Bruce Fields 7113277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Larry Finger 7213277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jeremy Fitzhardinge 7313277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Mike Frysinger 7413277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Kumar Gala 7513277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Robin Getz 7613277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Liam Girdwood 7713277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jan-Benedict Glaw 7813277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Thomas Gleixner 7913277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Brice Goglin 8013277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Cyrill Gorcunov 8113277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Andy Gospodarek 8213277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Thomas Graf 8313277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Krzysztof Halasa 8413277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Harvey Harrison 8513277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Stephen Hemminger 8613277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Michael Hennerich 8713277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Tejun Heo 8813277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Benjamin Herrenschmidt 8913277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Kristian Høgsberg 9013277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Henrique de Moraes Holschuh 9113277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Marcel Holtmann 9213277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Mike Isely 9313277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Takashi Iwai 9413277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Olof Johansson 9513277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Dave Jones 9613277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jesper Juhl 9713277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Matthias Kaehlcke 9813277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Kenji Kaneshige 9913277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jan Kara 10013277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jeremy Kerr 10113277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Russell King 10213277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Olaf Kirch 10313277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Roel Kluin 10413277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Hans-Jürgen Koch 10513277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Auke Kok 10613277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Peter Korsgaard 10713277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jiri Kosina 108b13267baSAaro Koskinen - Aaro Koskinen 10913277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Mariusz Kozlowski 11013277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Greg Kroah-Hartman 11113277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Michael Krufky 11213277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Aneesh Kumar 11313277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Clemens Ladisch 11413277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Christoph Lameter 11513277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Gunnar Larisch 11613277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Anders Larsen 11713277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Grant Likely 11813277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - John W. Linville 11913277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Yinghai Lu 12013277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Tony Luck 12113277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Pavel Machek 12213277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Matt Mackall 12313277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Paul Mackerras 12413277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Roland McGrath 12513277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Patrick McHardy 12613277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Kyle McMartin 12713277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Paul Menage 12813277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Thierry Merle 12913277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Eric Miao 13013277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Akinobu Mita 13113277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Ingo Molnar 13213277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - James Morris 13313277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Andrew Morton 13413277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Paul Mundt 13513277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Oleg Nesterov 13613277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Luca Olivetti 13713277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - S.Çağlar Onur 13813277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Pierre Ossman 13913277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Keith Owens 14013277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Venkatesh Pallipadi 14113277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Nick Piggin 14213277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Nicolas Pitre 14313277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Evgeniy Polyakov 14413277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Richard Purdie 14513277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Mike Rapoport 14613277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Sam Ravnborg 14713277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Gerrit Renker 14813277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Stefan Richter 14913277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - David Rientjes 15013277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Luis R. Rodriguez 15113277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Stefan Roese 15213277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Francois Romieu 15313277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Rami Rosen 15413277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Stephen Rothwell 15513277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Maciej W. Rozycki 15613277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Mark Salyzyn 15713277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Yoshinori Sato 15813277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Deepak Saxena 15913277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Holger Schurig 16013277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Amit Shah 16113277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Yoshihiro Shimoda 16213277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Sergei Shtylyov 16313277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Kay Sievers 16413277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Sebastian Siewior 16513277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Rik Snel 16613277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jes Sorensen 16713277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Alexey Starikovskiy 16813277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Alan Stern 16913277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Timur Tabi 17013277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Hirokazu Takata 17113277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Eliezer Tamir 17213277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Eugene Teo 17313277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Doug Thompson 17413277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - FUJITA Tomonori 17513277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Dmitry Torokhov 17613277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Marcelo Tosatti 17713277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Steven Toth 17813277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Theodore Tso 17913277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Matthias Urlichs 18013277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Geert Uytterhoeven 18113277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Arjan van de Ven 18213277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Ivo van Doorn 18313277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Rik van Riel 18413277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Wim Van Sebroeck 18513277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Hans Verkuil 18613277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Horst H. von Brand 18713277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Dmitri Vorobiev 18813277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Anton Vorontsov 18913277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Daniel Walker 19013277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Johannes Weiner 19113277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Harald Welte 19213277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Matthew Wilcox 19313277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Dan J. Williams 19413277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Darrick J. Wong 19513277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - David Woodhouse 19613277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Chris Wright 19713277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Bryan Wu 19813277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Rafael J. Wysocki 19913277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Herbert Xu 20013277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Vlad Yasevich 20113277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Peter Zijlstra 20213277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz 203