So why did this happen? Is it because kernel developers have cruel senses of humor, and delight in tormenting us? While that is a possibility, the real reason, as always, is to improve the kernel. The Linux kernel has evolved considerably since the bad old days of ide-scsi, the old ide subsystem, and the ATAPI subsystem. All of these had their problems. This has all been replaced by libata, which is easier to maintain, supports more devices, and works better.

In addition to cleaning up a pile of old kernel messes, libata supports power management, SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology System), and SATA port multiplier (PMP). PMP means you can use a single controller with multiple SATA devices. The one downside is you don't get as many partitions on PATA disks- under the old IDE subsystem you could have 64 partitions, but you only get 15 under libata. So if you like to carve your PATA disks into vast numbers of partitions, you'll either need to use the old subsystems and drivers, or join the 21st century and use LVM. (Or try the experimental kernel patch by Carl-Daniel Hailfinger that lets you have 127 partitions on a single hard disk; see Resources.)

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