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Subject: Re: 5.10 LTS Kernel: 2 or 6 years?
To:     Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>,
        Scott Branden <scott.branden@broadcom.com>
Cc:     Willy Tarreau <w@1wt.eu>, Florian Fainelli <f.fainelli@gmail.com>,
        Sasha Levin <sashal@kernel.org>,
        BCM Kernel Feedback <bcm-kernel-feedback-list@broadcom.com>,
        LKML <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
        Linux ARM <linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org>
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From:   Florian Fainelli <f.fainelli@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <cf9323b7-71c8-dd96-1755-ce90370af6d5@gmail.com>
Date:   Fri, 19 Feb 2021 07:05:41 -0800
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On 2/19/2021 12:25 AM, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 18, 2021 at 12:16:50PM -0800, Scott Branden wrote:
>> On 2021-02-18 10:36 a.m., Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
>>> On Thu, Feb 18, 2021 at 07:20:50PM +0100, Willy Tarreau wrote:
>>>> On Thu, Feb 18, 2021 at 06:53:56PM +0100, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
>>>>> On Thu, Feb 18, 2021 at 09:21:13AM -0800, Florian Fainelli wrote:
>>>>>> As a company, we are most likely shooting ourselves in the foot by not
>>>>>> having a point of coordination with the Linux Foundation and key people
>>>>>> like you, Greg and other participants in the stable kernel.
>>>>>
>>>>> What does the LF have to do with this?
>>>>>
>>>>> We are here, on the mailing lists, working with everyone.  Just test the
>>>>> -rc releases we make and let us know if they work or not for you, it's
>>>>> not a lot of "coordination" needed at all.
>>>>>
>>>>> Otherwise, if no one is saying that they are going to need these for 6
>>>>> years and are willing to use it in their project (i.e. and test it),
>>>>> there's no need for us to maintain it for that long, right?
>>>>
>>>> Greg, please remember I expressed I really need them for slightly more than
>>>> 3 years (say 3.5-4) :-) I'm fine with helping a bit more as time permits if
>>>> this saves me from having to take over these kernels after you, like in the
>>>> past, but I cannot engage on the regularity of my availability.
>>>
>>> Ok, great!
>>>
>>> That's one person/company saying they can help out (along with what CIP
>>> has been stating.)
>>>
>>> What about others?  Broadcom started this conversation, odd that they
>>> don't seem to want to help out :)
>> Greg, I'm sorry but I'm not in a position to provide such a commitment.
> 
> Ok, who at Broadcom do I need to talk to to get that type of commitment?

I am not sure if I was too subtle before, we (Broadcom) cannot give you
an unified voice to speak with because we are divided in silos/business
units that make their independent decisions.

The group I work in (STB/CM, different from Scott's) is committed to
using the 5.10 kernel for 6 years and that is a decision that has been
taken.

I could give you names of other decision makers in other business units
I know who also deliver Linux for their respective business units
however some of them may not make public appearances on mailing lists,
let alone care about upstreaming their changes so I do not know whether
a 6 years 5.10 kernel is even something they remotely entertain.

Hope this helps.
-- 
Florian