Linux 7.1 Removes Drivers for Bus Mouse Support

whalesalad

that pee stained microsoft mouse is really sending this home

bastawhiz

This is the kind of spring cleaning I crave. Deleting busted drivers that haven't worked in over a decade? Fantastic! Some of this hardware likely has exactly zero users because the material it's made from can't possibly have survived. Look at the cord on the mouse in the photo: you might be able to plug it in, but I wouldn't bet money signal can still make it down the wire.

flohofwoe

Raises the question whether a bug in code that's never called actually exists ;)

xiphias2

Microkernels have lost the open kernel wars because of their speed problems, but this is a great example of a driver that should have been running in userspace a long time ago, just like how Windows has been moving in that direction. Isn't Linux planning to do the same?

clifflocked

If anyone is curious, here is the actual commit that removed the drivers: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/lin...

mongol

What is a bus mouse? Is it using the old PS/2 port?

shevy-java

This makes me sad. Now, most will say "but why, 1995 is ancient history, no such hardware exists anymore". The thing is ... should Linux get rid of what is old? I understand you have a smaller kernel when you have less code, less cost to maintain, I get it. Still, I wonder whether this should be the only allowed opinion. Would it not be better to, kind of, transition into a situation where any hardware built in the future, would be supported? So in 2050, we'd not say "damn, computers from 2026 are obsolete now". We could say "no problem, linux is forever". Everything is supported. I actually would prefer the latter than the "older than 30 years, we no longer support it".

mmooss

> looking to remove old drivers due to the surge of AI/LLM bug reports I wonder how OpenBSD's careful code quality and hygiene (maybe there's a better word) has affected its vulnerability to LLM bug finding. Did their approach pay off in this case?

midtake

Is this due to Mythos and other LLMs finding a bunch of obscure bugs or simply a precaution? If someone (a normie not a gentooman) wanted to run Linux on retro hardware how would they do it? Boot Debian Sarge?

guzfip

Damn, there goes Linux as my retro computing target. Guess I’ll be porting dahdi to netbsd soon lol. Tbf, I get why Linux is dropping all this stuff. I wouldn’t mind becoming a maintainer of smaller drivers myself, but I doubt I have the skill level.

jasomill

Nice to know my arbitrary choice of a serial mouse over a bus mouse would have finally paid off, had I not lost the mouse to a fire in the early '90s.