1*13277782SGreg Kroah-HartmanKernel Driver Statement 2*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman----------------------- 3*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman 4*13277782SGreg Kroah-HartmanPosition Statement on Linux Kernel Modules 5*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman========================================== 6*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman 7*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman 8*13277782SGreg Kroah-HartmanWe, the undersigned Linux kernel developers, consider any closed-source 9*13277782SGreg Kroah-HartmanLinux kernel module or driver to be harmful and undesirable. We have 10*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartmanrepeatedly found them to be detrimental to Linux users, businesses, and 11*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartmanthe greater Linux ecosystem. Such modules negate the openness, 12*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartmanstability, flexibility, and maintainability of the Linux development 13*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartmanmodel and shut their users off from the expertise of the Linux 14*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartmancommunity. Vendors that provide closed-source kernel modules force their 15*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartmancustomers to give up key Linux advantages or choose new vendors. 16*13277782SGreg Kroah-HartmanTherefore, in order to take full advantage of the cost savings and 17*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartmanshared support benefits open source has to offer, we urge vendors to 18*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartmanadopt a policy of supporting their customers on Linux with open-source 19*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartmankernel code. 20*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman 21*13277782SGreg Kroah-HartmanWe speak only for ourselves, and not for any company we might work for 22*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartmantoday, have in the past, or will in the future. 23*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman 24*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Dave Airlie 25*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Nick Andrew 26*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jens Axboe 27*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Ralf Baechle 28*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Felipe Balbi 29*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Ohad Ben-Cohen 30*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Muli Ben-Yehuda 31*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jiri Benc 32*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Arnd Bergmann 33*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Thomas Bogendoerfer 34*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Vitaly Bordug 35*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - James Bottomley 36*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Josh Boyer 37*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Neil Brown 38*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Mark Brown 39*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - David Brownell 40*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Michael Buesch 41*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Franck Bui-Huu 42*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Adrian Bunk 43*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - François Cami 44*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Ralph Campbell 45*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Luiz Fernando N. Capitulino 46*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Mauro Carvalho Chehab 47*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Denis Cheng 48*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jonathan Corbet 49*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Glauber Costa 50*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Alan Cox 51*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Magnus Damm 52*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Ahmed S. Darwish 53*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Robert P. J. Day 54*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Hans de Goede 55*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo 56*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Helge Deller 57*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jean Delvare 58*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Mathieu Desnoyers 59*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Sven-Thorsten Dietrich 60*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Alexey Dobriyan 61*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Daniel Drake 62*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Alex Dubov 63*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Randy Dunlap 64*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Michael Ellerman 65*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Pekka Enberg 66*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jan Engelhardt 67*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Mark Fasheh 68*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - J. Bruce Fields 69*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Larry Finger 70*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jeremy Fitzhardinge 71*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Mike Frysinger 72*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Kumar Gala 73*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Robin Getz 74*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Liam Girdwood 75*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jan-Benedict Glaw 76*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Thomas Gleixner 77*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Brice Goglin 78*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Cyrill Gorcunov 79*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Andy Gospodarek 80*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Thomas Graf 81*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Krzysztof Halasa 82*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Harvey Harrison 83*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Stephen Hemminger 84*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Michael Hennerich 85*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Tejun Heo 86*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Benjamin Herrenschmidt 87*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Kristian Høgsberg 88*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Henrique de Moraes Holschuh 89*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Marcel Holtmann 90*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Mike Isely 91*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Takashi Iwai 92*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Olof Johansson 93*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Dave Jones 94*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jesper Juhl 95*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Matthias Kaehlcke 96*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Kenji Kaneshige 97*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jan Kara 98*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jeremy Kerr 99*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Russell King 100*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Olaf Kirch 101*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Roel Kluin 102*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Hans-Jürgen Koch 103*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Auke Kok 104*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Peter Korsgaard 105*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jiri Kosina 106*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Mariusz Kozlowski 107*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Greg Kroah-Hartman 108*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Michael Krufky 109*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Aneesh Kumar 110*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Clemens Ladisch 111*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Christoph Lameter 112*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Gunnar Larisch 113*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Anders Larsen 114*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Grant Likely 115*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - John W. Linville 116*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Yinghai Lu 117*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Tony Luck 118*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Pavel Machek 119*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Matt Mackall 120*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Paul Mackerras 121*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Roland McGrath 122*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Patrick McHardy 123*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Kyle McMartin 124*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Paul Menage 125*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Thierry Merle 126*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Eric Miao 127*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Akinobu Mita 128*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Ingo Molnar 129*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - James Morris 130*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Andrew Morton 131*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Paul Mundt 132*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Oleg Nesterov 133*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Luca Olivetti 134*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - S.Çağlar Onur 135*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Pierre Ossman 136*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Keith Owens 137*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Venkatesh Pallipadi 138*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Nick Piggin 139*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Nicolas Pitre 140*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Evgeniy Polyakov 141*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Richard Purdie 142*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Mike Rapoport 143*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Sam Ravnborg 144*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Gerrit Renker 145*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Stefan Richter 146*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - David Rientjes 147*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Luis R. Rodriguez 148*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Stefan Roese 149*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Francois Romieu 150*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Rami Rosen 151*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Stephen Rothwell 152*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Maciej W. Rozycki 153*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Mark Salyzyn 154*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Yoshinori Sato 155*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Deepak Saxena 156*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Holger Schurig 157*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Amit Shah 158*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Yoshihiro Shimoda 159*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Sergei Shtylyov 160*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Kay Sievers 161*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Sebastian Siewior 162*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Rik Snel 163*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Jes Sorensen 164*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Alexey Starikovskiy 165*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Alan Stern 166*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Timur Tabi 167*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Hirokazu Takata 168*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Eliezer Tamir 169*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Eugene Teo 170*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Doug Thompson 171*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - FUJITA Tomonori 172*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Dmitry Torokhov 173*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Marcelo Tosatti 174*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Steven Toth 175*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Theodore Tso 176*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Matthias Urlichs 177*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Geert Uytterhoeven 178*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Arjan van de Ven 179*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Ivo van Doorn 180*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Rik van Riel 181*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Wim Van Sebroeck 182*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Hans Verkuil 183*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Horst H. von Brand 184*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Dmitri Vorobiev 185*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Anton Vorontsov 186*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Daniel Walker 187*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Johannes Weiner 188*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Harald Welte 189*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Matthew Wilcox 190*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Dan J. Williams 191*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Darrick J. Wong 192*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - David Woodhouse 193*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Chris Wright 194*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Bryan Wu 195*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Rafael J. Wysocki 196*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Herbert Xu 197*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Vlad Yasevich 198*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Peter Zijlstra 199*13277782SGreg Kroah-Hartman - Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz 200