Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1752648AbYKAQIU (ORCPT ); Sat, 1 Nov 2008 12:08:20 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751574AbYKAQIL (ORCPT ); Sat, 1 Nov 2008 12:08:11 -0400 Received: from wa-out-1112.google.com ([209.85.146.178]:27852 "EHLO wa-out-1112.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751543AbYKAQIK (ORCPT ); Sat, 1 Nov 2008 12:08:10 -0400 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:sender:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version :content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition :references:x-google-sender-auth; b=nD8Xg9NZjMxHiG8955F9RYrHnT7z5tAlO7A5dafp/frDwkKIPj5rLjb95F4E6H944t IjoW77yg2BckCVvUaR9hqr31+K4kdijHnlZAu6gVdacZWCGoWle5gi5UUPb3mqiZWkJV 1BqicXaAbTRjhCWLAKlGeNP/xw53zvekmr+qo= Message-ID: <84144f020811010908h1220d209j799edca3eb772fd@mail.gmail.com> Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2008 18:08:09 +0200 From: "Pekka Enberg" To: "Devin Heitmueller" Subject: Re: [linux-dvb] [PATCH 1/7] Adding empia base driver Cc: "Hans Verkuil" , "Markus Rechberger" , v4l , linux-dvb@linuxtv.org, "Linux Kernel Mailing List" , em28xx , "Greg KH" , mchehab@infradead.org In-Reply-To: <412bdbff0811010846h2edd63bfn44536e8a1c72d17f@mail.gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <200811011505.51716.hverkuil@xs4all.nl> <412bdbff0811010846h2edd63bfn44536e8a1c72d17f@mail.gmail.com> X-Google-Sender-Auth: 4ec5139467b15c0e Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1890 Lines: 37 Hi Devin, On Sat, Nov 1, 2008 at 5:46 PM, Devin Heitmueller wrote: > A number of people have suggested that nobody was willing to > incorporate Markus's changes incrementally to improve the in-kernel > driver. This couldn't be further from the truth. I appealed to > Markus on multiple occasions trying to find some compromise where his > changes could be merged into the mainline em28xx driver. He outright > refused. It was his contention that his driver was/is better than the > in-kernel driver in every possible way, and that the existing code has > no redeeming value. In fact, I was accused of taking his GPL'd code > without his consent and incorporating it into the linux-dvb codebase. > It's this "all or nothing" attitude that has prevented his work thus > far from being incorporated, not the unwillingness of people like > myself to do the work to merge his changes in a sane matter. I'm not sure I understand how he can refuse such a thing. If the code is released under the GPLv2 and the author refuses to play by the well known rules of the kernel community, then I don't see any problem with taking the code and improving the current driver (as long as the copyright is properly attributed, of course). I think it's already pretty well established that we don't just take in shiny new drivers and trust a new maintainer to do the right thing because that has gotten us in such a mess so many times before. Being part of the community is not so much the code you write but the way you interact with other kernel developers. So, if I were you, I'd just do it. Pekka -- 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/