Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1760867AbXKIBaf (ORCPT ); Thu, 8 Nov 2007 20:30:35 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1754564AbXKIBa1 (ORCPT ); Thu, 8 Nov 2007 20:30:27 -0500 Received: from mx1.redhat.com ([66.187.233.31]:57727 "EHLO mx1.redhat.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753563AbXKIBa1 (ORCPT ); Thu, 8 Nov 2007 20:30:27 -0500 Message-ID: <4733A6A6.5000605@redhat.com> Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2007 19:15:34 -0500 From: Chris Snook User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.5 (X11/20070719) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: ciol CC: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [poll] Is the megafreeze development model broken? References: <47331CA2.9000403@redhat.com> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1669 Lines: 37 ciol wrote: > Chris Snook wrote: > >> Why are you asking the developers? We do this for the sake of the users. > > > The kernel is the software of the developers. The kernel is a technology. A distribution is a product. When decisions about technology and decisions about products are made *entirely* by the same people, the result is never good. > It's important to know how they want it to be distributed. For commercial distributions, the answer is: "In whichever way results in the largest paycheck with the least amount of stress and effort", which means doing it the way that's best for the customer. Non-commercial distributions have less of this pressure, but the same principle applies if they care about their users. If you're not interested in the users but you are interested in the technology, you should be doing your work upstream, so the distribution is irrelevant. Don't get me wrong, I think stable kernel trees like 2.6.16 are a good thing. They serve very well a whole bunch of different niches where users are willing to sacrifice the support benefits of a distribution kernel for the control of an upstream kernel, while maintaining the stability of their installed base. These users have little interest in the general-purpose distribution kernel anyway, aside from perhaps wishing it included some config or patch that its maintainers have elected not to include. -- Chris - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/