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SubjectRe: People need to say "no"
On Thu, 25 Feb 1999, Eric Princen wrote:

>Sorry to waste bandwidth here, but I think Robert is overstating the
>omnipotence of Linus. Before I get 1001 flames for that, I'll just state
>that I'm speaking in the unspeakable hypothetical here... :-)

I heavily disagree.

>If people agreed that a feature was needed and Linus was the sole person who
>didn't want it in, he could be over-ruled.

No. If someone wanted that feature, they could release patches
on the side that implement it, or they could even distribute a
ready to go fully patched kernel. In no way does that "overrule"
Linus. Anyone is free to do this, nobody is stopping them.

>I believe the GPL the way it is would allow us to just make it
>our beastie an new OS (under a new name if need be)

Yes, you are more than free to fork the tree at any time you
like.

>and everyone works on that leaving Linus' personal Linux to die.

That is VHU - Very Highly Unlikely (TM). Pick any feature you
like. Linus says no - it is highly unlikely that any particular
kernel patch that Linus rejects will be deemed by the masses to
be something that should go in. In other words, there are no
patches/features that are available right now that 80% of
everyone out there thinks "I *HAVE* to have that - Linus is
wrong". This is not likely to EVER happen either. People for
the most part respect Linus's judgement, despite what a small
minority of people might think, and as such, Linus will maintain
his omnipotence until he decides he no longer wants the
responsibility. I believe he could make arbitrary decisions like
"Today Linus drops FAT filesystem from the kernel" and people
would argue and complain, but if there were good enough technical
reason, most people would go, "Yes, I agree", if not as peers in
agreement, then as penguin followers....

Granted, the particular example I just gave is lame, and totally
not going to happen, but replace my example with something else
until it makes sense to you.

>Linus is the God of Linux just because we all trust him to be.

Not just because of trust. Read ESR's papers - The Cathedral and
the Bazaar, etc... Linus IMHO does not make irrational
decisions, and never has done so. The only way that Linux could
fall, or that the Linus approved kernel could sway were if some
irrational decision on Linus's part were done to the kernel, and
that that change were to be contrary to what a large portion of
the Linux userbase want/need in the kernel.


>He could just as easily not be.

Not likely until he decides to leave development himself.

>Please just flame me directly if you choose to. There is other more
>important work to be done on the list. (My wife and I be kayaking the Grand
>Canyon for three weeks in just a bit, so I won't get the flames anyway. :-)

No flames. Just some differing of opinion. ;o)

Take care, and enjoy your kayaking!
TTYL


--
Mike A. Harris Linux advocate GNU advocate
Computer Consultant Open Source advocate

News for nerds, stuff that matters: http://slashdot.org


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