Re: userspace breakage

Jeff V. Merkey
2005-12-30T00:20:18Z

Linus Torvalds wrote:

>On Thu, 29 Dec 2005, Jeff V. Merkey wrote:
>
>
>>Linus Torvalds wrote:
>>
>>
>>>We're not talking about internal kernel stuff. Internal kernel stuff _does_
>>>get changed, and we dont' care about breakage of out-of-kernel stuff. That's
>>>fundamental.
>>>
>>>
>>Start caring. People spend lots of money supporting you, and what you are
>>doing. How about taking some responsibility for that [...]
>>
>>
>
>Cry me a river, Jeff.
>
>The kernel is GPL'd. That's my responsibility. Source code. Stuff that
>comes to me as patches. That's my job, and that's what I get paid for. In
>fact, my contract says that I _cannot_ work on anything that isn't open
>source.
>
>Stuff outside the kernel is almost always either (a) experimental stuff
>that just isn't ready to be merged or (b) tries to avoid the GPL.
>
>Neither is worth a _second_ of anybodys time trying to support, and when
>you say "people spend lots of money supporting you", you're lying through
>your teeth. The GPL-avoiding kind of people don't spend a dime supporting
>me, they spend their money actively trying to debase and destroy what I
>and thousands of others have been working our butts off for.
>
>

The fact that Oracle and IBM support apps on Linux are Freeloading? Baloney!
Linux benefits by having the choice of al these applications.

(P.S. I have heard through the grapevine IBM is putting emphasis on AIX
as their platform and are actively telling this to large customers --
can you verify this
and are you aware of it)

>So don't try to make it sound like something it isn't. We support outside
>projects a hell of a lot better than we'd need to, and I can tell you that
>it's mostly _me_ who does that. Most of the core kernel developers argue
>that I should support less of it - and yes, they are backed up by lawyers
>at their (sometimes quite big) companies.
>
>So be honest now. Are those projects you care about going to be GPL'd and
>actively pushed back into the standard kernel?
>
>And if they aren't, SHUT THE HELL UP, because they are total freeloaders,
>and claimign that they "support" me is total crap.
>
>

Commercial applications support gives Linux "network effect" (economic term)
and thus clout and credibility. Protect this -- its in **OUR** interests.

Jeff

> Linus
>
>
>