Slashdot Mirror
Torvalds Gets Tough on Kernel Contributors
ChocLinux writes "Linus Torvalds is cracking down on developers that add last-minute changes to the kernel during the two-week merge window. He says: 'If people miss the merge window or start abusing it with hurried last-minute things that just cause problems for -rc1, I'll just refuse to merge, and laugh in their faces derisively when they whine plaintively at me, and tell them there's going to be a new opening soon enough.'"
While I think that his language is a bit inflammatory, I think that it is something that needs to be done. All the last minute changes must make things very difficult to manage.
My
Torvalds later added, "I am legion. All shall kiss my smoldering hoof."
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
This sort of thing happens in the corporate environment (at least where stability is valued over new features). I don't see why we shouldn't have some of the same process in OSS. I think this is a bold, yet helpful move by Linus and I congratulate him on taking a stand!
Prof. Farnsworth: This will not stand! I'll take you on, you air balling bozos!
Bubblegum: You old man? Ha! Sweet Clive, laugh derisively at him.
Sweet Clive: Ahaha, ahaha, aahahaha.
Linus has a new title:
Not-So-Benevolent (But Exceedingly Pragmatic) Dictator for Life?
Steve Ballmer referred to him as an "amateur" and offered to tutor him in the art of anger.
So you are arguing that Linus shoudlt claim slashdot is all about making unqualified comments and circle jerking them up to +5 insightful,
by making a unqualified comment about linux kernel management and getting modded up for it...
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
This is simply a manager telling others off that they can not miss deadlines. It happens all the time in any business. Difference is, that Linux development is in the open.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
If Linus talks down to other developers that contribute to Linux in such a primitive way, he shouldn't complain about Slashdot, as he did here: http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95. Quote:
Gaah. I don't tend to bother about slashdot, because quite frankly, the whole _point_ of slashdot is to have this big public wanking session with people getting together and making their own "insightful" comment on any random topic, whether they know anything about it or not.
Congratulations! We have a winner! The 3rd Annual Slashdot unintentional irony award goes to titwurstman!
He beat all comers this year due to his use of a quote suggesting that people on Slashdot comment on things they know nothing about, to support his Slashdot comment on something he knows nothing about!
The Slashdot editors have now permanently closed the competition, as it is widely agreed that nobody will ever top this year's winner!
If Linus talks down to other developers that contribute to Linux in such a primitive way, he shouldn't complain about Slashdot, as he did here: http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95.
Well said, fellow slashdot user teewurstmann of id 755953! With that post, you certainly took Linus Torvalds to task for daring to belittle the collective intelligentsia that is SLASHDOT! As a mere senior kernel developer, founder of the Linux kernel project and leader of the mainline kernel development process certainly he needs to be shown his place by our community of insightful commentators. From mom's basement I stab at thee!
Well isn't that cute. Nice try at a piece of Troll FUD.
;]
:-)
And you "wisely" drop the following sentence from what your quoting.
Here's the quote in context:
>>>
Gaah. I don't tend to bother about slashdot, because quite frankly, the
whole _point_ of slashdot is to have this big public wanking session with
people getting together and making their own "insightful" comment on any
random topic, whether they know anything about it or not.
[ And don't get me wrong - I follow slashdot too, exactly because it's fun
to see people argue. I'm not complaining
And I don't tend to worry about the Inquirer and the Register, because
both of them are all about being rough and saying things in ways that
might not be acceptable in other places, and that's what makes them fun to
read. So when they then write something nasty about Linux (or me), hey, it
goes with the territory.
So much for Linus complaining about slashdot.
You trolling Sucker.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Developer: Here's my patch. Sorry its late...
Linus: The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee....
"We are all geniuses when we dream"
- E.M. Cioran
In Torvalds' book, "Just for Fun", he laughs in the reader's face derisively as they look at the printed words plaintively.
Somewhere, there's got to be a "Deep Thought" by Jack Handy about Linus T.
"Contrary to what most people say, the most dangerous animal in the world is not the lion or the tiger or even the elephant. It's a shark riding on an elephant's back, just trampling and eating everything they see." ~ Jack Handy
They call me the working man. I guess that's what I am.
Having just read the thirty or so posts that have been made as I write this, I cannot believe I am the only one who read the "laugh derisively" bit as tongue-in-cheek.
Do you really imagine Linus will start jumping on planes and seeking out kernel contributers to laugh in their faces. Bloody hell, I know geeks have trouble with anything not strictly literal but sheesh.
I read it as "Certain people are repeatedly making changes at the last minute and I'd really rather they didn't".
Think of this: All the reported bugs have been fixed, you're about to make a new release, and a last minute change introduces an awry bug that forces you to make ANOTHER release.
And what happens if in that "another release" another guy makes ONE MORE last minute change and... well you get the idea.
I've seen this happen at sourceforge projects, and this is what gives Open Source such a bad reputation - buggy projects. Sure, 999 bugs have been fixed, but 10 major flaws are introduced with the next version. Just search any SF project's bugs for "crash" or "segfault", and you'll get the idea (and these are reports about RELEASES, not cvs). And why does this happen? Because of devs NOT RESPECTING the timings!
So, please guys, p-l-e-a-s-e, respect the timing! This is Linux we're talking about, not some hobby project.