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Date:   Fri, 19 Feb 2021 16:53:27 +0100
From:   Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
To:     Florian Fainelli <f.fainelli@gmail.com>
Cc:     Scott Branden <scott.branden@broadcom.com>,
        Willy Tarreau <w@1wt.eu>, 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>
Subject: Re: 5.10 LTS Kernel: 2 or 6 years?
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On Fri, Feb 19, 2021 at 07:05:41AM -0800, Florian Fainelli wrote:
> 
> 
> 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.

That's fine, I'm totally used to that, large (and even small) companies
always have different groups with different roadmaps and policies.

> 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.

Great!  Will you all be testing the -rc releases and letting me know how
they work for your systems?

> 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.

That's fine, I'm not expecting emails from the list, we can take this
off-list if you like as it sounds like I need to talk to some different
managers there, right?  :)

thanks,

greg k-h