One long-running controversy in the open source community has to do with device drivers and whether binary modules (proprietary code provided by device manufacturers, such as Nvidia) should be allowed within the Linux kernel.

While most basic hardware support for GNU/Linux is improving constantly, wireless support remains dismal. Few manufacturers make an effort to support the operating system, or to publicize what support they have.

Since the misty days of yore, the first step in learning a new programming language has been writing a program that prints "Hello, world!". In this article, we will use the same approach to learn how to write simple Linux kernel modules and device drivers. We will learn how to print "Hello, world!" from a kernel module three different ways: printk(), a /proc file, and a device in /dev.

IBM's WebSphere RFID Information Center was certified as fully compliant with its EPCIS standard. The company also introduced support for a newly ratified reader interface open standard and reported that eight device manufacturers have implemented the Eclipse open source device model to interface their devices with the IBM Premises Server 6.0.

Ease the pain of migrating device control applications from Microsoft® Windows® to Linux® by understanding how device control works in both operating systems. The authors outline these differences and give you a C/C++ migration sample.

Open source drivers will become an imperative, rather than a choice, for device manufacturers who want to break into new markets and extend their user base

"A microkernel is a minimal computer operating system kernel which, in its purest form, provides no operating-system services at all, only the mechanisms needed to implement such services, such as low-level address space management, thread management, and inter-process communication (IPC).

Don't tell Greg Kroah-Hartman that Linux hurts for device drivers. He's heard too much of that rap, and he's already done plenty to stop it. We should thank him and help pick up the ball. I'm doing both here.

TurboLinux says it has added online storage capabilities to its combination PMP (portable media player) and personal Linux boot device. The "Wizpy" device will soon gain support for network-based file storage, thanks to a deal with third-party storage service provider Omnidrive.