Re: Yes, we have bugs

[Luca Niccoli <lultimouomo@gmail.com>]

2009/4/15 David Nusinow <david@gravitypulls.net>:

> Please see the reply I just posted to the bug for a partial explanation of
> why using hal is important for more than just hotplugging. I'll be writing
> up a more complete explanation soon.

I understand that hal fills an important gap in linux; I think that
from an architectural point of view, an abstraction layer is the way
to go.
The problem is that, in my experience, hal is a horrible piece of
software. It makes my (computing) life worse. Its obscure, erratic
behaviour and the lack of documentation make me feel like when I was
using windows 98. (ok, not *that* bad, but kind of)
I am willing to pay the price to avoid it as long as possible
(hopefully it will get better, or replaced, in the future), and since
it looks like it's possible ATM, I would really be happy if X did not
depend on that.
(I see you've written that probably X dependency on hal will be
demoted, I appreciate.)

2009/4/15 Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@err.no>:

> A machine without USB or PCI is not a particularly common sight those
> days.  Heck, even machines without SATA are becoming uncommon.

I should have stated more clearly that I meant hot plugging for X.
I hotplug my USB disks since when hal didn't exist.
I never hot plugged a SATA disk, but I don't think you need hal to do that.
Anyway, you are being PC-centric. Debian is getting on many low power
devices that often don't have USB, nor PCI, nor SATA, though they have
a graphical interface (e.g. mobile phones).
And a bloat like hal hurts even more there.

Cheers,

Luca