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kernel-doc-html-2.4.19-16mdk.i586.rpm

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>User-level or kernel-level driver?</H1
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>    The decision of whether to choose to write a kernel-level device
    driver or a user-level device driver depends on several factors.
    One of the main ones from a practical point of view is speed:
    kernel-level device drivers get to run faster because they are not
    preemptable, unlike user-level applications.
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>    Another factor is ease of development.  It is in general easier to
    write a user-level driver because (a) one wrong move does not
    result in a crashed machine, (b) you have access to user libraries
    (such as the C library), and (c) debugging is easier.
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