Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sat, 1 Nov 2008 18:08:09 +0200 | From | "Pekka Enberg" <> | Subject | Re: [linux-dvb] [PATCH 1/7] Adding empia base driver |
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Hi Devin,
On Sat, Nov 1, 2008 at 5:46 PM, Devin Heitmueller <devin.heitmueller@gmail.com> wrote: > A number of people have suggested that nobody was willing to > incorporate Markus's changes incrementally to improve the in-kernel > driver. This couldn't be further from the truth. I appealed to > Markus on multiple occasions trying to find some compromise where his > changes could be merged into the mainline em28xx driver. He outright > refused. It was his contention that his driver was/is better than the > in-kernel driver in every possible way, and that the existing code has > no redeeming value. In fact, I was accused of taking his GPL'd code > without his consent and incorporating it into the linux-dvb codebase. > It's this "all or nothing" attitude that has prevented his work thus > far from being incorporated, not the unwillingness of people like > myself to do the work to merge his changes in a sane matter.
I'm not sure I understand how he can refuse such a thing. If the code is released under the GPLv2 and the author refuses to play by the well known rules of the kernel community, then I don't see any problem with taking the code and improving the current driver (as long as the copyright is properly attributed, of course).
I think it's already pretty well established that we don't just take in shiny new drivers and trust a new maintainer to do the right thing because that has gotten us in such a mess so many times before. Being part of the community is not so much the code you write but the way you interact with other kernel developers.
So, if I were you, I'd just do it.
Pekka
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