Re: [Ksummit-2013-discuss] [ATTEND] How to act on LKML (was: [ 00/19] 3.10.1-stable review)

Benjamin Herrenschmidt
2013-07-18T02:01:05Z

On Wed, 2013-07-17 at 10:14 +0400, James Bottomley wrote:
> > OK, I am stupid enough to take a stab at this...
> >
> > 1. Does the Linux kernel community's health depend on the occasional
> > rant? [My guess is that we simply have no way of knowing.
> > That said, I would be interested in hearing specific examples
> > of open-source communities that are as doing as well as is the
> > Linux community and that live within stricter social mores.
> > Cue arguments about exactly what "doing well" means...]

My little personal opinion (that nobody probably cares about :-) is that
the occasional Linus rant is a good thing. It keeps people like me in
check :-)

More seriously, the rant when I screw up is generally deserved, and the
"idea" of the possible rant (I prefer not using threat) is actually a
strong motivator to get things right.

Ie. It's a *very good* barrier against maintainers sliding into
sloppyness. Really, it works. At least with me.

It's easy to take things a bit too much for granted, especially when you
maintain your own little corner of the world.

Cheers,
Ben.