"I have ported [the] adutux driver for [the] ADU series device list from 2.6 to 2.4," Vitaliy Ivanov announced on the Linux USB development mailing list. 2.4 maintainer Willy Tarreau explained that while the backport looked good, as a rule it was best to not merge new drivers into the stable 2.4 branch of the Linux kernel, "2.4 is currently used by people who already are in 2.4 and cannot/do not want to switch, and by people who are looking for close to zero maintenance. Drivers are often a reason to switch away from 2.4, but not to stay in 2.4."

One of the arguments for merging the driver into the mainline 2.4 tree was so it would then be added to the various distribution kernels. Pete Zaitcev explained that this wasn't the way it worked with enterprise kernels, "at least in case of RHEL, such backports never were automatic. In any case, RHEL 2.1 and 3 do not receive new drivers anymore. We only do bugfixes if something comes up. Realistically speaking, 2.4 kernels are just too old for anyone to use." Willy did agree to consider merging the driver if Vitaliy wanted to step up as the official maintainer for the 2.4 backport.