Re: [GIT PULL] bcachefs changes for 6.17

Carl E. Thompson
2025-08-12T00:44:05Z

> On 2025-08-11 11:40 AM PDT Malte Schröder <malte.schroeder@tnxip.de> wrote:
> ...

> Frankly for me as a user who does probably not know the hole picture you
> seem to just be spewing paranoid hate into these threads which I do not
> quite understand.

I apologize for coming across that way. I guess I'm just very frustrated at this whole situation and the fact that it appears from my perspective to be damaging the reputation and credibility of Linux which is something I care about very deeply.

And I'm angry. I'm angry because of the damage to Linux and because Kent appears to be misrepresenting events in a way that make others whom I respect look bad. For example, here in this thread a key point Kent is claiming is that no one has ever told him specifically anything that he's done wrong and essentially that other kernel developers are attacking him for no good reason. That's simply not true. Linus has explained his mistakes to Kent on multiple occasions. Other kernel developers have tried to help him see what he's doing wrong. Random users (including I) have tried to help him interact better with others. It is simply not true that no one has told him what he's done wrong.

There are many other things about Kent's recounting of events and things he has said in this thread that also seem to be objectively not true. If anyone thinks it would be useful I can itemize those things I've noticed.

I'm also angry because I'm a long-time bcachefs supporter. I started using bcachefs years ago long before it was in the kernel. I've put a lot of my own work into running it, testing it and submitting bug reports. Up until a few months ago I had about 20 bcachefs filesystems of varying sizes spread across my personal workstations, servers and lab. I even integrated bcachefs as a core part of a relatively large (by my standards) project I'm hoping to release some time before the end of the year. There were some warning signs along the way but I ignored them because I really, really wanted bcachefs.

But eventually I had to ask myself... If Kent repeatedly brings conflict and discord to a group that needs to work closely and trust each other, and if Kent repeatedly makes the same interpersonal mistakes and doesn't learn from them, and if Kent seemingly regularly misrepresents things... Can I really trust him or his code? My personal answer to that is "no." So I've migrated everything I have from bcachefs and I'm angry about wasting all the time and effort I put into it.

Finally I'm angry because so many people appear to be thinking only of themselves. They appear to think: *I* really want to use bcachefs and it would be much more convenient for *me* if it were in the kernel therefore it should be in the kernel and the other kernel developers should let Kent do whatever he wants no matter how it makes them feel about their work environment.

My opinion is that's a really great recipe for making Linux worse: Suck the joy out of the other kernel developers' jobs by forcing them to work with someone who seemingly doesn't respect anyone but himself simply because *we* (the users) really want bcachefs. Go that route and valuable contributors will mentally check out or worse leave altogether. It will spread like cancer (and probably already is). It's an absolute fact that people who are unhappy in the workplace do worse work. Let's keep the kernel developers happy.

Again, I apologize for being overly harsh.

Carl

PS: I do hope that Kent can work things out and figure out how to contribute in a way that's useful for others and makes him happy. But we sometimes have to weigh giving someone like Kent another chance against the harm keeping him around does to other people we care about.