Dependency of essential Linux bluetooth features on dbus

Apparently I'm not the only one with outspoken criticism of the BlueZ dependencies on dbus.

I do not want to debate the merits of a message bus system on any system (desktop or non-desktop) and neither do I want to start a debate on how efficient dbus is trying to solve that problem.

However, what I'm fundamentally opposed to is when basic interaction in a network or between a computing device and its peripherals depends on extensive userspace dependencies. Now you might argue that ipsec needs a userspace keying daemon, that routing protocols need a routing daemon, and 802.1x or WPA need a userspace daemon, too. This is not the point. There are very valid technical reasons for doing so, and nobody really proposes that such things should move into the kernel. Also, none of the above-mentioned programs have requirements on other userspace components aside from glibc or maybe some netlink specific library.

Bluetooth however now requires dbus. At least it is almost impossible to do without. I have tried for neverending hours and didn't make it work. Others apparently have similar problems.

If people want to [d]bus-enable their kernel-related tools, let them do it. But please make it optional and don't depend on it. This is just not how things are done in the Linux kernel world until now, and I don't think there has been any debate on whether we really want such a paradigm change yet..