Re: libata maintainership change

["Nicholas A. Bellinger" <nab@linux-iscsi.org>]

On Fri, 2013-05-03 at 16:01 -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> Linux has really found its groove.
> 
> When I first got involved in Linux, there was no PCI API (now called the 
> hotplug or device API), and patch submission was a moderately painful 
> process of throwing spaghetti at a wall: sending and resending, with 
> both Linus and maintainers having to manually resolve merge conflicts. 
> <shiver>
> 
> It was a real fight to get any Linux hardware support at all.  The vast 
> amount of hardware documentation was locked away or simply unavailable.
> 
> Working on memory management or filesystems or scheduling was always the 
> Sexy Rock Star PhD work that attracted engineers.  OTOH, I felt, device 
> drivers were ignored as boring, unsexy grunt work.  Which, ok, maybe it 
> was.  Each new device driver, though, spread Linux to more and greater 
> locales.  Alan Cox and Don Becker did enormous heavy lifting back then. 
>   Now Linux is where it is today, with most hardware vendors actively 
> seeking open source driver support (except NVIDIA, natch).  The kernel 
> has come a long way.
> 
> Time for new open source pastures outside the kernel, for me.  SATA is 
> slowly getting unexciting to the world.  Which, really, just means the 
> brand new technology has reached a usable plateau.  :)  And maybe in a 
> few years, with directly attached PCI-NextGenSuperFastExpress storage, 
> ATA and SCSI will be distant memories.
> 

;)

> Until such time as block-based storage disappears from this earth, the 
> brave Sir Tejun, basically the libata co-author at this point, has 
> agreed to be a target for slings and arrows known as libata patches.
> 
> All the best,
> 

Thank you Jeff, and best of luck in all your new endeavors !!

--nab