Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1756089Ab0LQU2F (ORCPT ); Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:28:05 -0500 Received: from cantor.suse.de ([195.135.220.2]:42141 "EHLO mx1.suse.de" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1755218Ab0LQU2D (ORCPT ); Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:28:03 -0500 Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCE] TCM/LIO v4.0.0-rc6 for 2.6.37-rc6 From: James Bottomley To: Vladislav Bolkhovitin Cc: "Nicholas A. Bellinger" , linux-scsi , LKML , Christoph Hellwig , "Patil, Kiran" , Mike Christie , FUJITA Tomonori , Hannes Reinecke , Boaz Harrosh , Joe Eykholt , "J.H." , "H. Peter Anvin" , Linus Torvalds , Bart Van Assche In-Reply-To: <4D0BBE40.6030000@vlnb.net> References: <1292557664.31461.68.camel@haakon2.linux-iscsi.org> <1292599364.2820.21.camel@mulgrave.site> <4D0B8975.1040206@vlnb.net> <1292602908.2820.41.camel@mulgrave.site> <4D0BBE40.6030000@vlnb.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:27:38 -0500 Message-ID: <1292617658.2820.80.camel@mulgrave.site> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.30.1.2 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 6215 Lines: 138 On Fri, 2010-12-17 at 22:47 +0300, Vladislav Bolkhovitin wrote: > James Bottomley, on 12/17/2010 07:21 PM wrote: > > On Fri, 2010-12-17 at 19:01 +0300, Vladislav Bolkhovitin wrote: > >> James Bottomley, on 12/17/2010 06:22 PM wrote: > >>> OK, I think this has reached the stage where it's been polished enough > >>> outside mainline to the point where we can complete any remaining todo > >>> items in-tree. > >>> > >>> So lets begin merging with the minimal target core and the TCM_Loop as > >>> two separate commits. I think the target core may just fit under the > >>> reflector mail length limits, but if not, you can send it as multiple > >>> patches and I'll recombine them. > >> > >> Well, could somebody eventually explain what are advantages of LIO over > >> SCST so you are choosing it? > >> > >> LIO is obviously worse all technically (see > >> http://scst.sourceforge.net/comparison.html) as well as in the number of > >> users and size of the community. Current in-rush attempts to make LIO > >> _look_ not worse than SCST changed nothing in this area. > > > > To be honest, I don't really give a toss about niche feature > > comparisons: both products have niche features the other doesn't. The > > basic requirements in both products are solid. > > James, sorry, but your position is weak and absurd. In it maturity, > quality and features don't matter. I didn't say maturity and quality, I said niche features. Apparently it's subjective, because both LIO and SCST think their own niche features are essential and the other's are irrelevant. > Following this logic Linux kernel and > a student's home brewed OS kernel for his PhD work are equal. So linux did begin as a student's home brewed OS kernel ... > Obviously, > this is wrong. No doubts, that all what Linux kernel can do with the > same quality as it does can be added to the student's kernel sooner or > later, ... but after several decades of hard work of thousands of people. Precisely. Or said a different way: as long as you choose the most community oriented of competing offerings, the community will fill any perceived gaps. Conversely, you can destroy a project simply by alienating the community. That's why community is more important than feature set. > Moreover, isn't Linux kernel and you as a maintainer supposed to choose > what is ALREADY the best, not what is promising to become better > somewhen in the future? Or not become. No, see above. Many technically very competent potential additions to linux have failed because of maintainer problems. > > If the niche feature has > > customer value, my estimation is that it can easily be added (to either > > product). > > If you eventually look on the technical comparison of SCST and LIO, > you'll see that SCST is far ahead in practically everywhere, in any > major area. Why not to compare yourself instead of blindly relying on > what NicholasB and his people are chea^H^H^H^Hsaying. > > >> In the resent threads how many people voted for LIO? Nobody. How many > >> for SCST? Many. Moreover, has any real user of LIO participated in those > >> threads? None? > > > > This isn't a democracy ... it's about choosing the most community > > oriented code base so that it's easily maintainable and easy to add > > feature requests and improvements as and when they come along. In the > > past six months, LIO has made genuine efforts to clean up its act, > > streamline its code and support the other community projects that would > > need to go above and around it. > > At first, can you recall any cases where community comments to SCST were > not addressed? All of them have been addressed and none ignored. NEVER. > > Simply, LIO is very much premature code comparing to SCST. It is very > easy to find in it simple issues to comment, hence you see the big value > of comments. Look, I'm not interested in the backstabbing. *Both* projects have fairly large user bases and businesses with revenue models built around them, so I see that argument as a wash for both sides. > In contrast, SCST has been maturing for many years (since 2004). It's > polished to high finish, so you can't so easily find out something to > improve in it. The feature requests and improvements in LIO you are > referring simply already in SCST. > > Also, doesn't the size of the community reflects how community oriented > project is? > > So far in the kernel community we see that, basically, the only person, > Christoph Hellwig, has taken responsibility to judge and he is pushing > LIO. Christoph is a very authoritative person, so many people are just > following his direction not dare to object. Nobody wants to go against > Christoph Hellwig. At max, people sending me private support e-mails > (thanks!) writing that SCST is great and obviously receives very unfair > treatment from the kernel maintainers. > > But Christoph is a biased person. Several years ago he preferred > blessing STGT creation instead of already well existing at that moment > SCST. Now we know that was a wrong move and SCST was the right way to go. > > Are we going to repeat that mistake again? I don't think it was a mistake. STGT gave us the userspace modifiability that neither LIO nor STGT offered at the time. James > > You seem to have spent a lot of the > > intervening time arguing with the sysfs maintainer about why you're > > right and he's wrong. > > Well, we are making the best designed and implemented code, right? > Aren't arguments part of this process? > > Anyway, we almost finished a patch with new SCST sysfs interface, which > should satisfy Greg KH requirements. Bart several days ago sent proposed > new layout and Greg didn't object to it. We will send this patch in > several days. > > Vlad > > -- > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-scsi" in > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html -- 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/