Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: Greg KH <gregkh@g.o>
To: gentoo-dev@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: Let's redesign the entire filesystem!
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 21:00:59
Message-Id: 20120314210021.GA11179@kroah.com
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: Let's redesign the entire filesystem! by Ciaran McCreesh
1 On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 03:59:56PM +0000, Ciaran McCreesh wrote:
2 > On Wed, 14 Mar 2012 08:22:09 -0700
3 > Greg KH <gregkh@g.o> wrote:
4 > > The people doing the work today do understand them, by virtue of
5 > > doing the work involved, which gives them the say in how it is done.
6 > > That's how open source works, why is this ever a surprise to people?
7 >
8 > The problem is that when a small number of people who have commit
9 > access to core projects screw everything up and don't fix the mess
10 > they're inflicting upon everyone,
11
12 Again, there is a simple solution for this problem, already provided,
13 and supported, so no "mess" talking here please, that's just trying to
14 be dramatic.
15
16 > the only option left with "how open source works" is for someone to
17 > fork the code from the point where it all worked. That isn't something
18 > that should be done lightly.
19
20 Forking should ALWAYS be done lightly and often, I highly recommend it.
21
22 If you think you know how to do something better, it's best to fork,
23 work it out, and if you come up with something, then work to merge it
24 back, if at all possible. If merging doesn't work, and it turns out
25 that your stuff works better, people will migrate to it, keeping it
26 alive.
27
28 Odds are, the fork will turn out to be a dead-end, and it will die off.
29 But you will then know the reasons why, and not be so upset when others
30 do things you disagree with.
31
32 That's the way evolution works, and it works quite well, it's why open
33 soure works as well as it does.
34
35 So please, fork away, I can't recommend it enough. Remember, it's what
36 got us Gentoo :)
37
38 greg k-h