Re: Linux 2.4.16-pre1

Patrick McFarland
2001-11-25T22:39:00Z

Again, Ill clarify my possition, I didnt mean to slam on Linus, but its too big
for him to maintain AND code for. As much as I would like him to maintain it,
he is a human, like us. Well, most of us. Im still wondering about ac. ;)

And he still is technically maintainer for the 2.5 kernel because he hasnt officially named anyone else. And no, im not saying 2.5 is in maintence mode, but you have to maintain code already written to improve it. Recoding falls under maintance, belive it or not.

And yes, I think Linus is cool for letting all of us use the kernel and hack the kernel and all the other geek goodness. And dont take this as Im slamming the kernel either. But I mean, we need more dedicated kernels coder. Linus just happens to be (imho) the best kernel coder we have.

On 25-Nov-2001, François Cami wrote:
> Patrick McFarland wrote:
>
> >The Linux kernel is a very important peice of software,
>
>
> So true
>
> >not the little project you started many years ago.
>
>
> Yes. But I believe Linus does want to manage it. It was very kind of
> him to allow us to play with it in the first place. If you're not happy
> with that, I believe you're free to leave, exactly the same as you
> were free to join.
>
> >Its grown beyond what you can manage alone, Linus.
>
> >Find someone to help you. You cant develop and maintain at the same time.
>
>
> 2.4 is now in the hands of Marcelo, to me that means 2.4 is nearly
> "finished", i.e. going into *real* maintenance mode.
>
> >Well, not unless we can clone you, or get rid of whatever real life you
> >have.
>
>
> I won't comment on that one.
>
> Regards,
>
> François Cami
>
>
> >On 25-Nov-2001, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> >
> >>On Sun, 25 Nov 2001, Stephan von Krawczynski wrote:
> >>
> >>>The "problem" effectively arises from _fast_ releasing "stable" versions.
> >>>
> >>Actually, I think that is just the _symptom_ of the basic issue: I do not
> >>like being a maintainer.
> >>
> >>Let's face it, we had similar problems in 2.2.x, for all the same reasons:
> >>I'm simply not a good maintainer, because I'm too impatient and get too
> >>bored with it.
> >>
> >>The fact that I've held on to 2.4.x for too long, mostly due to the VM
> >>problems, really doesn't help. That just makes me _less_ likely to be
> >>careful. Especially when the last known VM problem was fixed (ie the
> >>Oracle highmem deadlock), I had a very strong urge to just "get the d*mn
> >>thing out to Marcelo".
> >>
> >>I'm much happier doing development, and what I'm best at for Linux is at
> >>doing the "hard decisions" - and not necessarily because of technical
> >>reasons, but simply because I _can_ make them without too many people
> >>grumbling. An example of this is to do the VM reorg in the first place,
> >>something that at the time a lot of people disagreed with.
> >>
> >>But I'm not a good, careful, maintainer. I never claim to be.
> >>
> >>I bet you'll see better, more consistent quality from Marcelo.
> >>
> >> Linus
> >>
> >>-
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> >>
> >>
> >
>
>
>

--
Patrick "Diablo-D3" McFarland || unknown@panax.com