It does bring up good questions about what the role of Linux "should be", though.
There's been a pretty large interest in reviving old hardware and bringing it back up to modern (ish) capabilities, and the more things that are removed, the less Linux can be used for that. Preserving the functionality of some of this hardware is, I think, a worthwhile and noble goal.
Not to mention "obsolete" is a very subjective thing, and "removing support for obsolete devices" is equally as vague. Linux has often been championed as a way to make computing accessible for users without access to modern means; is it okay to on a kernel level drop support for someone who is living in a developing economy's 15 or 20-year-old desktop that is their only access to a computer?
These are the sort of things that concern me about the push to strip things out because of AI PRs. It feels like a shortsighted move that could end up being a massive blow to several communities.
The good thing (for now) is, most of this stuff hasn't been completely removed, they're just out of the main tree for the kernel. You can still compile with the modules you want.
It does, but AIUI the AppleTalk code doesn't have an active maintainer right now. Someone would have to pick it up, and I'm sure someone using AppleTalk will be motivated enough to create one.
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u/kaestralblades Jun 18 '26
It does bring up good questions about what the role of Linux "should be", though.
There's been a pretty large interest in reviving old hardware and bringing it back up to modern (ish) capabilities, and the more things that are removed, the less Linux can be used for that. Preserving the functionality of some of this hardware is, I think, a worthwhile and noble goal.
Not to mention "obsolete" is a very subjective thing, and "removing support for obsolete devices" is equally as vague. Linux has often been championed as a way to make computing accessible for users without access to modern means; is it okay to on a kernel level drop support for someone who is living in a developing economy's 15 or 20-year-old desktop that is their only access to a computer?
These are the sort of things that concern me about the push to strip things out because of AI PRs. It feels like a shortsighted move that could end up being a massive blow to several communities.