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Subject: Re: 5.10 LTS Kernel: 2 or 6 years?
To:     Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>,
        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>
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From:   Florian Fainelli <f.fainelli@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <f3d66398-667a-4b6b-e431-e923f8ffa079@gmail.com>
Date:   Fri, 19 Feb 2021 09:44:23 -0800
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On 2/19/2021 7:53 AM, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> 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?

Yes I will, can you add me to your CC list for the stable candidates?
That helps me not having to dig for those announcements specifically.

> 
>> 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?  :)

I will put together a list and send you an email off list.
-- 
Florian