Linux 7.2 is cutting support for a 35-year-old card’s driver because people aren’t using it anymore
Linux 7.2 is cutting support for a 35-year-old card’s driver because people aren’t using it anymore
Publish Date: 2026-05-25 00:54:00
Source Domain: www.xda-developers.com
Summary
- Linux 7.2 removes the RC Systems DoubleTalk PC ISA speech synthesizer driver.
- The driver has coding-style issues and has only seen minor fixes since Linux 2.6.
- The same hardware is supported by another driver, so removing the driver cuts maintenance without breaking support.
In an ideal world, Linux would support every piece of tech that has ever been released for all of eternity. There’s just one problem: people have to maintain that code, and there’s the very real chance that nobody is actually benefiting from it. The result is a lot of manpower spent on ensuring that a piece of legacy hardware continues working with Linux, with zero guarantee that anyone actually uses it.
As such, we’ll occasionally see legacy hardware support dropped from the kernel, and it’s fascinating to see what kind of tech Linux did support until someone decided to end it. Such is the case of the RC Systems DoubleTalk PC ISA speech synthesizer card driver, a piece of tech that was released in 1991, which is being retired in Linux 7.2. The best part is, it doesn’t even spell doom for anyone who still uses one of these cards.
Related
…
Source
