Re: [tlug] Peeling onions.

[Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com>]

On Fri, 4 Mar 2005 18:56:02 +0100, Martin Bähr
<mbaehr@example.com> wrote:

> On Fri, Mar 04, 2005 at 04:16:05PM +0900, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
>
> >     Uva> It seems to me that the GNU way of doing things restricts
> >     Uva> Linux kernel development to some extent.
> >
> > I don't see how.  I think it's Linus who is the bottleneck.  Just
> > compare the HURD with any of the actually useful OSS kernels; you'll
> > see that "the GNU way" kills kernels.
> 
> i would not go that far, since one of the reasons for hurds slow
> development is focus on other things. on the other hand you are right.
> but i believe that this is because gnu does NOT put any restrictions on
> the hurd development. (do what you want, we don't care when it's done)

What!? This sounds as far removed from the Stallman school of
management as possible. Linus on his most (benevolently) dictatorial
day does not come close to the level of control that Stallman feels he
must exert on *every* official GNU project.

> where as the restrictions for the linux kernel come from the users:
> we want a stable kernel, and we want it now, and we don't care about
> cool features.

I must disagree. Linus has always been the final authority on what
goes into the official tree (i.e. his), and he has been known to do
things that are horrible for stability, like replace the entire VM
implementation, *in the so-called stable tree* (2.4.x)! Granted, most
of the "restrictions" that you have attributed to the users above
apply fairly well to Linus's mindset.

-Josh