Subject: Re: [PATCH] net-sysfs: Report link speed only when possible

From: Michal Privoznik <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2014 09:32:35 +0200

On 13.06.2014 22:03, David Miller wrote:
> From: Michal Privoznik <[email-masked]>
> Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2014 11:19:51 +0200
>
>> So if I were developing brand new application I could say: I'm
>> dropping all this workaround code and have it clean and require say
>> 3.16 kernel at least.
>
> Then your application wouldn't be usable on %99 of systems for a long
> long time.
>

How come? The application is going to be usable for as long as 
library/kernel APIs won't change. Or until the time a new regression is 
introduced and fix is rejected. Speaking of which - long long time 
applications *are* broken now. This patch is combining the good from 
both worlds: old applications are fixed, new applications doesn't have 
to learn anything new.

> I don't think this is the right tradeoff at all.
>

Neither is keeping things broken.

Michal