Marcelo Tosatti on UnitedLinux (And More)

PDAJames writes "There's a new interview with Marcelo Tosatti online. He talks about what it's like to be kernel maintainer after nine months on the job and identifies the biggest problems with the kernel now. He also defends UnitedLinux against Mandrake's criticism. He would, since he works for Conectiva..."

Comments

Heh

[GigsVT]

There are some simple problems that non-technical users might have with Linux, such as installing new software, or finding certain files that they need in the system. What's the solution to that?

Why do people keep insisting on asking kernel maintainers questions that only related to user level apps? What's the point? That's like asking the Gaim team about the newest block device code.

Re:Heh

[GoRK]

Well you are wrong about one thing: "100% IDE"

Burners are ATAPI devices - Calling them "IDE" is sort of like saying "Ethernet" when you mean "http" or something else like that. ATAPI was invented to bring SCSI devices into the consumer market with minimum cost to hardware manufacturers (ie no change of command api's in the devices firmware). As far as the command set goes, they are actually almost 100% SCSI. Ditto with ATAPI zip drives and tape drives. Heck, even the parallel port zip drives are SCSI (with a built in ppa SCSI controller). USB mass storage uses the SCSI command set also -- and I think Firewire does too (I may be wrong about firewire). ide-scsi is *not* a SCSI emulator. It is a transport, the same as the USB mass storage transport.

IMO, the mistake was to write a seperate driver for ATAPI in the beginning that did NOT tie to the SCSI system - we might have a mature ATAPI/SCSI interface by now that did not have the problems that we see today.

And why do you mention only CD burners? I use ide-scsi for regular CDROMS, zip drives, and tape drives. The application support is much better (ie i can do cd to cd copies, use all backup software, etc)

~GoRK

Linux Magazine interview

[larry bagina]

devloperWorks has this interview with Marcello from March. Ignore the Java exceptions :)

Can't we all just get along

[ShwAsasin]

Although I am Mandrake/SuSe/RedHat user, I still find each distro great in their own individual way. I think United Linux offers an interesting solution to the bigwigs (Red Hat, and Mandrake on a lessser scale) but it will be tough for them especially when RH/Drake have both the server / desktop markets in their palms.

But we all know that things can change in a 90 degree turn on a day, i.e. Sega Saturn vs. PS, Genesis vs. SNES, OS9 vs. OSX, etc...

Only time will tell.

Wise words from a young man

[red_dragon]

This bit really stood up, IMO:

It's just technology, so why do these clashes come up, do you think?
Because people are there. Egos show up.

And it could not be explained any more simply than that.

Marcelo

[MrHat]

I just try to be as technical as possible. It is very important to me... People do not use the right words some of the time. Starting a fight is really easy. But instead of saying, for example, "You are full of shit," you can just say, "I don't think you are really right." You have to use the right words.

Slashdot could learn a lot from this guy.

Can't go to the U.S.?

[Ami Ganguli]

He said he got turned back at the border once for having a B1 visa when he needed a B2, and now he can't go back. What's the deal here? Is he banned for life?

Re:Can't go to the U.S.?

[Anonymous Coward]

To be allowed to enter the US after being rejected on an incorrect visa, he needs to go through some long bureaucratic process which may or may not result in the ban being lifted. He probably figures that it isn't worth doing until he has a really good reason to go to the US.

Re:Can't go to the U.S.?

[4of12]

He said he got turned back at the border once for having a B1 visa when he needed a B2, and now he can't go back. What's the deal here?

Uhm, you haven't been following the earlier posts which clearly explained how Marcelo was much wiser for his years in terms of dealing with people and personalities as well as being a technically adept kernel hacker and having the ability to think about a huge number of diverse kernel patches being applied to a production system used by millions worldwide.

Shoot, if the United States were to start letting people like Marcelo into the country there's no telling what kind of mess we'd be in!

Now, if he were slyly willing to work off the books in a meat packing plant or a demolition site for forty dollars a day he might have a better chance...

Re:Not allowed in the US?

[sofar]

Damn, I wish this would happen to Bill Gates, or maybe George Bush, or how about...

akpm

[neroz]

No offense to Marcelo, 2.4.18 was a great release.. but I honestly think Andrew Morton would have been a better choice for maintainer. The delay between 2.4.18 and 2.4.19 has been several months long - a few months is acceptable because of the IDE changes, but this is just a bit much. The time between pre-releases has been too long recently as well - the longer between each pre, the more changes that are made between them == less testing of the changes seperately.

(Yes, I know all the arguments about how it is a "stable" series and all - but some people want new features, and 2.5 is not an option, thanks to IDE being 0wned by Martin).

This is _NOT_ a troll.

Re:akpm

[guybarr]

I know all the arguments about how it is a "stable" series and all
but you want to discard stability of a STABLE branch for features - not a great deal for users who wish to actually use the system.

- but some people want new features, and 2.5 is not an option, thanks to IDE being owned by Martin
have you considered that IDE instabilities are in 2.5 because this is where new features and engineering reforms should be done, regardless of who is the maintainer ?

my belief: there should be a split to 3 branches:
1) long-term dev-branch: this branch is where large-scale (>months) changes are made and tested.
2) medium and short-term dev-branch: this branch is what you're looking for, where features and fixes which take months or less are made and tested, really tested, not like the 2.4 VM fiascos, before becoming stable.
3) stable branch: this branch changes once a year or less, except for very minor bug/security fixes.

changes will NOT be imported directly from 1->3, only 1->2 , 2->1 and 2->3 .

this will give you both stability for those who need it, long-term dev and testing environemnt for the systemic reformers, and short-term devellopment for the medium- to small-scale changes.

and before anyone of you jumps and shouts "but this is exactly the debian model of stable, testing, unstable branches" I say that both branch 1 AND 2 are dev. AND testing branches, the criterion sugested is the changes scale, not the targeted audience (though ususally decisions may be similar between models).

Attitute Problem?

[blancolioni]

He also defends UnitedLinux against Mandrake's criticism. He would, since he works for Conectiva...

Marcelo was polite and reasonable throughout the interview, and gave clear reasons for his position. What's with the bitchy editorialising?

Linus

[bgarcia]

But instead of saying, for example, "You are full of shit," you can just say, "I don't think you are really right." You have to use the right words.

Slashdot could learn a lot from this guy.

Hell, Linus Torvalds could learn a lot from this guy.