[PLUG] Linus is mad at a kernel maintainer

Bill Thoen bthoen at gisnet.com
Sat Dec 29 17:02:59 UTC 2012


On 28-Dec-12 8:27 PM, King Beowulf wrote:
> On 12/28/2012 08:03 AM, MJang wrote:
>> Folks,
>>
>> This message from Linus on the kernel mailing list is interesting
>> (warning; language at the link is pretty salty).
>>
>> http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/1414106
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Mike
> Reading this thread, I think many of you are confused. Perhaps looking
> the whole thread will give a better picture.
>
> http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/1413835/focus=1414106
>
> ...There are few ways to govern volunteers on a F/OSS
> project.  If they screw up, you can't fire them or give them a bad
> annual review with reduced raise etc. The only way that seems to work is
> both VERY public praise for a job well done and EXTREMELY public ridicule
> for screwing up.  Anything else just won't work.  Since Linux, via
> Slackware, is my day-to-day OS of choice, a BDFL (1)has certain
> advantages: stability, don't break stuff when updating. Building a
> kernel, or an OS,  is not what a democracy does well. Kernel by commitee?
> Good grief, NO!
>
> -Ed
>
> (1) Benevolent Dictator for Life
I read the whole thread, and I see what you're saying. Kernel 
development does seem like something that should be tightly controlled 
and directed. Everything else depends on it. In that circle the true 
Linux mascot isn't a stoned penguin sitting contently on an iceberg; 
it's more like a Gray Wolf (one leader, coordinating a disciplined 
team,  and where each member's social standing depends on their 
intellectual strength.)

Outside of this forum, most of the Linux users that I've met don't know 
a lot about the kernel other than how to configure it. So I guess if 
military-like social coercion over an elite volunteer team is a 
management strategy that works, then great.  But the problem with a 
Benevolent Dictator For Life (BDFL) is that there are no checks on what 
he wants to do and how he wants to run things.  And the problem with a 
team of volunteers (unlike a wolf pack) is if they don't like the BDFL 
and can't directly challenge him successfully, then they are free to go 
elsewhere. If the BDFL starts to lose it, or wants to retire or goes 
over the rainbow, what happens?

> ...The only way that seems to work is
> both VERY public praise for a job well done and EXTREMELY public ridicule
> for screwing up.  Anything else just won't work....
Team members will put up with this style of management only as long as 
they believe that the leader can walk on water and that the social value 
of being on the elite team remains high. These are strong forces. We 
know they can provide enough motivation to develop a passion in 
programmers that money alone can't buy, and we know it can work for some 
time, too. But will it work forever? Does this form of management create 
the sort of people who can lead a volunteer effort as big as Linux? Or 
are we depending on luck?


-- 
*Bill Thoen*
GISnet - www.gisnet.com
303-786-996



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