OSDL Denies Rewriting Kernel

yootje writes "Although there were rumours saying that OSDL writes a version of the Linux kernel that doesn't infringe patents (an argument that was used by Microsoft), OSDL denies this: 'OSDL officials have said that the report was not accurate, and that while Beaverton is putting $1.2m into economic development around open source software, this is not connected to rewriting the Linux kernel.'"

Comments

Look at the source of the rumor

[Vengeance]

It was Maureen O'Gara, a writer without an ounce of credibility or ethics. She's been a huge part of the MicroSCOft campaign against Linux all along, this is just another bow shot.

Re:Look at the source of the rumor

[rewt66]

"Just another bow shot"? To me, a bow shot is a shot to inform your (naval) opponent that you can hit them, and to imply that you will hit them if they don't stop.

This article, however, is nothing of the sort. It's more like "just another shot at a random set of coordinates, hoping that it comes close enough to someone to scare them".

Re:That's a shame

[A beautiful mind]

That's something made me laugh this week. NO, the code isn't 10 years old. One of the core developers said this week that the kernel is getting 4mb of patches every week. Now, lets compute a bit:

# du -hs /usr/src/linux-2.6.7
290M linux-2.6.7
# bc
(...snip...)
290/4
72


This would assume that in a little bit over 1 year, the kernel is totally replaced. I know its logically flawed, but it means in my interpretation that there is no obsolete code in the kernel that would be >10 years old, or maybe with a few exceptions. I think it's safe to assume that most parts of the kernel aren't older than 2-3 years. Your logic is flawed.

Personally i think the kernel is perfectly good without a rewrite.

Legal issues shouldn't be a consideration neither, since SCO-code in the linux kernel is something in one class with Santa Claus. Linus stated on multiple occasions that he doesn't believe sco code could be in the kernel. I don't have evidence who generates those rumours, but i got a hunch it's from the SCO,Microsoft side of the barricade.

Re:That's a shame

[A beautiful mind]

"Rewrite", to a programmer, doesn't mean to throw everything out and start from scratch, either. It means rethink some the design. Reevaluate why feature X was done the way it was, and if that's stillt he best way to do it. Make sure it's still relevant for modern hardware, and make sure it will still be relevant for tomorrows hardware.
MSFT is doing this with Longhorn. The hardware evolves, why shouldn't the software that runs on it?

...And linux is doing this with odd releases(2.1, 2.3, 2.5) and now with -mm while keeping 2.6 around. Did you ever look at LKML? You could see tons of discussions about what and how should be done.