From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Chris Mason Subject: Re: when distros do not support official Marcelo kernels they are not being team players (was Re: reiserfs on redhat advanced server?) Date: 04 Feb 2003 17:22:59 -0500 Message-ID: <1044397378.15684.714.camel@tiny.suse.com> References: <20030131122147.GE15359@marowsky-bree.de> <3E3A6D76.7080300@namesys.com> <86lm0xpmho.fsf@trasno.mitica> <3E3E7A95.1050908@namesys.com> <1044284001.15685.358.camel@tiny.suse.com> <3E3EBA3F.7060806@namesys.com> <1044300746.15684.428.camel@tiny.suse.com> <3E3EC7EC.8090005@namesys.com> <1044304857.15684.475.camel@tiny.suse.com> <3E3F0D5D.5070409@namesys.com> <20030204163609.GT19723@suse.de> <3E403488.9050408@namesys.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: list-help: list-unsubscribe: list-post: Errors-To: flx@namesys.com In-Reply-To: <3E403488.9050408@namesys.com> List-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: Hans Reiser Cc: Hubert Mantel , Ragnar =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Kj=F8rstad?= , reiserfs-list@namesys.com On Tue, 2003-02-04 at 16:45, Hans Reiser wrote: > The official kernel is our kernel community's only chance to overcome > its fragmentation. We need to support it. We do support the official kernel, by actively developing and improving it, and by answering questions on public mailing lists. When things work in our kernel (like reiserfs, or andrea's vm etc) we work to get it into the vanilla kernel. We're also constantly updating our work to keep it in line with the current vanilla sources. It takes a while due to the volume of patches and testing required, but we're always working on it. Of course this is a different issue from debugging customer problems sent to support@distro.foo hit while running a vanilla kernel. The entire reason we have our own kernel is because for some reason or another the vanilla kernel wasn't sufficient to meet our needs. This fact is mutually exclusive with supporting someone who uses the vanilla kernel. This is the key point that I seem to be failing to convey, so please explain how we can: A) modify a kernel because it doesn't work, and then B) help people use the unmodified kernel that doesn't work without C) telling them to use our modifications. > All of us, regardless of > what camp we are in. It should never be the discouraged officially > unsupported branch of the kernel Marcelo's kernel is a base that we all start from, and all work toward, but each distro has the right to decide which features and fixes they believe are critical for their own support contracts, and then expect the users to use those features and fixes before we start answering their questions. Again, this has nothing to do with questions sent to public mailing lists, where every distro coder will help debug a problem hit on a vanilla kernel. It's only about someone sending mail to support@distro.foo, and expecting help with some random combination of packages that may or may not have come from us. -chris (not speaking for suse in any official sense)