Re: Linux 2.4.16-pre1

Patrick McFarland
2001-11-26T00:59:09Z

For the 52 and a half time, Im not trying to nock Linus. I think hes possibly the best coder we have. (if not the best, atleast in the top 3) But he isnt the best choice of maintainer. And yeah, he did pretty well with 2.4, but it wasnt as good as it could have been. And also, ive been noticing, alot of people disagree with me on this, that the head developer shouldnt be the head maintainer. But how many projects that are this large can you name? Like, i dunno, xfree? That has questionable maintainability. Gnome? KDE? They are fairing okay, but It could be better. And I like the kernel qa group idea, but where would we get the people to be on it? ac and lt are usually too busy, tho, atleast with ac (in top 3 of coders, best linux maintainer we have ever had) 2.5 would get maintained well so linus can focus on coding like I belive he should be. Im a coder myself, so I know how hard it is to maintain a project when it gets big. (I kinda get bored of it like linus does)

Also, alot of people have been saying that I dont know about the section maintainers, like that dave m guy is a maintainer for the network stuff, im talking more of a kernel wide maintainer. Which brings another point. We have per section maintainers, but no real dedicated development tree kernel wide maintainer.

On 25-Nov-2001, Andrew Pimlott wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 25, 2001 at 05:07:01PM -0500, Patrick McFarland wrote:
> > Then quit being maintainer.
>
> I for one believe that Linus was the best person to lead Linux
> through the 2.4 series stabilization. It was bumpy, but who else
> could have pulled off the rather deep changes that put 2.4 on firmer
> footing? On the down side, he released some kernels with small but
> annoying bugs. A small price, in my estimation. Hardly grounds for
> disqualification.
>
> If this is such a concern for you, form a post-Linus QA group that
> certifies Linus kernels after testing them and applying small
> bug-fixes. Then, you get the benefits of Linus's judgement without
> the brown paper bags. Sounds like a win all around.
>
> If you want to knock Linus[1], I hope you can do better than
> complaining about a few bugs. Demonstrate that Linux would be
> better off long-term if Linus had dropped 2.4 after 2.4.0. I
> strongly doubt you can make that case.
>
> Andrew
>
> [1] Not that it matters in the end, because it's his kernel. But at
> least you should make a respectable argument.
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--
Patrick "Diablo-D3" McFarland || unknown@panax.com