KBuild Issues on the LKML

Mark Bainter writes "If you haven't checked out kbuild lately, you should. The new build system Keith Owens has put so much time into has a long list of benefits, including much shorter build and rebuild times, and greater accuracy. It appears his system is well liked by most, kernel developers (though not all). So the question is, why won't Linus merge it? Keith has been announcing for some time that it is ready to merge, and has worked very hard on trying to keep everything up to date as the development kernel continues to change, yet his requests to merge seem to be largely ignored. Linus did weigh in on the topic, but his views don't seem to resonate very far on the list, and seem rather arbitrary to me. Keith doesn't seem to be all that fond of Linus' thoughts on the matter either, and has called for an email campaign to get Linus to merge it in all at once. Perhaps instead of everyone on /. emailing their (partially informed) opinion to Linus, an open discussion amoung Linux users/developers who might not normally participate on the kernel list would lend some weight one way or another."

Comments

How do we think about the next step?

[Futurepower(R)]

I've been following the sociology of Linux to some degree.

Linus Torvalds is a brilliant human being, but he doesn't know everything, and no one does. Everyone seems happy with his technical knowledge. However, he doesn't seem as capable of thinking creatively about the sociological issues, such as "How do we make the next transition." It seems to me that there is some need for organization or re-organization of the Linux effort. But what should that be?

Linux is a world-wide phenomenon. It is one of the most beautiful things happening in the world today, in my opinion. Arguably, governments should use open source, free software, because proprietary software hides some government activities from citizens, or puts an understanding of government operations beyond citizen's financial reach. Possibly Linux will become the backbone that runs all the world's governments.

It is reasonable to suppose that Linux has grown to the point where there is a need for additional infrastructure to take some load off Linus' huge, but not infinite, mental capacity? If so, how do we think about that? Who will think about that? Who will finish the thinking, rather than just provide disconnected ideas?

Linux is not about money, but maybe there are times when money would help. Is it possible that a management fund would be useful? If so, I would be proud to donate $100, or more.

Are there efforts that are not suitable for volunteers? Is it possible that a few employees, under the direction of Linus, could help accomplish clerical tasks?

I'm not qualified to know the answer, but maybe I am qualified to play a miniscule role in asking some initial questions.

IMHO...

[moonboy]

I agree with Linus. I think such decisions and actions are best made with little steps.