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Comment by joe_the_user | Hacker News Reader

I'm really not sure why Linux driver-creator spend effort trying to access laptop-specific feature. Most of these are somewhere between worthless and annoying. I had compaq where Ubuntu support twenty unwanted hotkey features that kept me from using standard function keys and popped-up the calculator with one false twitch. Took a few days to remove.

Manufacturers should pay developers and support the features if they want them in Linux - especially since I Manufacturers actually benefit more than end-users. IE, it's useless except for the rare few who like the features and gain BRAND LOYALTY, the most valuable commodity of the modern era.

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Note that what you talk about has nothing to do with the underlying bug. UEFI provides a mechanism where any installed operating system can store and use named variables. The Samsung firmware fails if the size is more than trivial but not unreasonable amount.

Linux just happened to be first to hit the problem because on a kernel panic, it writes diagnostic information to UEFI variables (only 10kb - well within the spec). The panic happened to be caused by Samsung driver written to Samsung's specs, but that is coincidental.

Microsoft panics can be minidump format which are up to 64kb in size (also within the spec) so if they did the same thing then they'd hit the same issue. Or if Microsoft decided to throw some other stuff in there (eg information during upgrades, recovery information) they could cause exactly the same problem.

Many features have no standard api, which includes screen brightness. My samsung laptop a keyboard backlight, which requires the samsung module to use. There are also various other options in the BIOS that can be accessed through this interface. Unfortunately they are required.

I'd rather have the calculator pop up for you, then myriads of Linux Newbies complaining that their Laptop doesn't fully "work" out of the box in Linux and thus Linux sucks.

Also, as mentioned by others, there are all those special buttons for volume and screen brightness, for stamina/power mode and what not that are actually useful!

I'd rather have noobs complaining that Linux sucks than a calculator popping up whenever I hit FN instead of CTRL.

I don't get how you making a mistake (pressing the wrong button) is the problem of the Operating System. It's just you doing the wrong thing.

Well typically the driver is written by the manufacturer or, more commonly, someone who DID want access to those features. What may be useless to you, or I, may be immensely useful to someone else.

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