RE: RFD: Kernel release numbering

Linus Torvalds
2005-03-04T04:26:20Z

On Thu, 3 Mar 2005, Hua Zhong wrote:
>
> Do you consider having a real stable release maintainer again?

No, this really is a different thing.

This is not a "truly separate" parallell track, exactly because it would
not actually get a life of its own. For it to make sense, it would not do
any big changes, ie it would be _limited_ in a way that a real stable
release would not. Also, since it would leave the old kernel behind when a
new stable release comes along, it would not have any real independence in
time either.

Now, I think this "sucker tree" I'm talking about would be a great basis
for somebody else then taking it _further_ (ie vendor stable trees), but
it really is a fairly small step.

> If you want someone to do the job, give him a title. It's a thankless and
> boring job, and you can't make it worse by just hiding him somewhere.

Actually, that was something I'd _avoid_ - make it non-glorious on
purpose. In the kind of tree I envision, the _last_ thing we'd want is the
maintainer looking at a big picture and feeling important. I'd be happiest
if he was almost totally anonymous, because I think it's likely a boring
job, but it's a boring job that _many_ people could do (ie to avoid
burnign people out, make it be a stint of a couple of months, not a
"crowning life work", and then you could probably have half a dozen people
who are perfectly willing to take it on every once in a while.

Ie I'd organize it like some of the "checkin committees" work for other
projects that have nowhere _near_ as much work going on as Linux has. That
seems to work well for small projects - and we can try to keep this
"small" exactly by having the strict rules in place that would mean that
99% of all patches wouldn't even be a consideration.

In other words, I'm really talking about something different from what you
seem to envision. I think we should call the tree the "sucker tree", and
if somebody wants to make a logo for it, make it be a penguin with a
jokers' hat: exactly to remind people that it's not about the glory.

(Maybe that's going overboard a bit ;)

Linus