Messages in this thread | | | Date | Mon, 6 Apr 2009 21:27:15 -0700 (PDT) | From | Linus Torvalds <> | Subject | Re: [PATCH 0/8][RFC] IO latency/throughput fixes |
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On Mon, 6 Apr 2009, Trenton D. Adams wrote: > > Okay, so a config option is a benefit in what way, for these > particular circumstances? If someone wants to change the behaviour of > the kernel, for this particular case, they can just use tune2fs, no?
Basically, I have a very simple policy in my kernel life:
- I don't touch distribution settings. I update the kernel, and NOTHING else.
(Ok, I lie. I do my own git version too, but I'm really unhappy when I feel like I need to maintain anything else)
And I have that policy because quite frankly, if I start tuning distro settings, I'll
(a) forget about them and not do it on my next machine and (b) do some magic that _I_ may know how to do but nobody else does, so now what I'm doing is no longer relevant for anybody else (c) I'm no longer helping anybody else.
So I have a few bits and pieces that I develop (mainly the kernel but also git etc), and I don't make site-specific changes to them even if I could.
In other words: if I make a change that helps me, I want to make sure that I make that option available to everybody else, because quite frankly that's a big portion of the whole point of open source.
The whole "scratch your itch" isn't just about scratching _your_ itch, it's about getting it (almost by mistake) fixed for a lot of other people too.
Linus
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