Going my own way
Oct. 6th, 2015 01:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mjg59Reaction to Sarah's post about leaving the kernel community was a mixture of terrible and touching, but it's still one of those things that almost certainly won't end up making any kind of significant difference. Linus has made it pretty clear that he's fine with the way he behaves, and nobody's going to depose him. That's unfortunate, because earlier today I was sitting in a presentation at Linuxcon and remembering how much I love the technical side of kernel development. "Remembering" is a deliberate choice of word - it's been increasingly difficult to remember that, because instead I remember having to deal with interminable arguments over the naming of an interface because Linus has an undying hatred of BSD securelevel, or having my name forever associated with the deepthroating of Microsoft because Linus couldn't be bothered asking questions about the reasoning behind a design before trashing it.
In the end it's a mixture of just being tired of dealing with the crap associated with Linux development and realising that by continuing to put up with it I'm tacitly encouraging its continuation, but I can't be bothered any more. And, thanks to the magic of free software, it turns out that I can avoid putting up with the bullshit in the kernel community and get to work on the things I'm interested in doing. So here's a kernel tree with patches that implement a BSD-style securelevel interface. Over time it'll pick up some of the power management code I'm still working on, and we'll see where it goes from there. But, until there's a significant shift in community norms on LKML, I'll only be there when I'm being paid to be there. And that's improved my mood immeasurably.
(Edited to add a context link for the "deepthroating of Microsoft" reference)
In the end it's a mixture of just being tired of dealing with the crap associated with Linux development and realising that by continuing to put up with it I'm tacitly encouraging its continuation, but I can't be bothered any more. And, thanks to the magic of free software, it turns out that I can avoid putting up with the bullshit in the kernel community and get to work on the things I'm interested in doing. So here's a kernel tree with patches that implement a BSD-style securelevel interface. Over time it'll pick up some of the power management code I'm still working on, and we'll see where it goes from there. But, until there's a significant shift in community norms on LKML, I'll only be there when I'm being paid to be there. And that's improved my mood immeasurably.
(Edited to add a context link for the "deepthroating of Microsoft" reference)
no subject
Date: 2015-10-07 12:58 am (UTC)Not because it was the right thing to do or anything, but because it's pretty much the only way the kernel is going to be pried away from Torvalds.
"We're shocked, shocked to find abuse going on. Clearly Torvalds can't be trusted with kernel leadership".
Aaaaand boom, Linux is forked, several tens of millions is spent on rebranding, Torvalds is expelled for CoC violations, and a little underground funding goes into lampooning that stupid, "legacy" penguin.
Shiny new brand, shiny new conferences, shiny new CoC, old contributers welcomed back, kumbaya sung.
And 100% corporate control established. I'd give it 9 to 18 months. Count on it.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-07 08:26 am (UTC)If that even happens, the SJWs that swoop in will gut the project and leave it in ruins just like they did to the GNOME Foundation.
But go ahead, ruin a perfectly good software project to make yourself feel better.
no subject
Date: 2015-10-07 08:42 am (UTC)True, the GNOME Foundation is in ruins! GNOME is in ruins!
Except not.
GNOME is awesome and the Foundation is thriving. But yeah, I need to trust some Anonymous on the Interweb, they surely knows.
(Not that I agree with kicking out Linus, it really seems a horrible idea when a small change in his approach is more than enough.)
no subject
Date: 2015-10-07 01:44 pm (UTC)They are not thriving, but they are surviving
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTY2Mjc
https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/22xlhu/the_gnome_foundation_has_run_out_of_money_reserves/
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/04/13/1454215/the-gnome-foundation-is-running-out-of-money
A financial update
Date: 2015-10-07 02:49 pm (UTC)The OPW program have now been transferred to the Software Freedom Conservancy organization.
The GNOME Foundation also got a lot of donations thanks to the Groupon fundraiser (see https://www.gnome.org/groupon/ for more info). It got 102,608 USD from 5622 individual donors. The Foundation Board said that these money will be spent on things that will benefit not only GNOME, but the wider free software community.
- Andreas
no subject
Date: 2015-10-07 02:54 pm (UTC)The money that was used for outreach was provided by donors specificially for the outreach project.
Without an outreach project, the money would never have been in the GNOME Foundation in the first place.
http://jeff.ecchi.ca/blog/2015/09/13/outrageous-outreach/
too late
Date: 2015-10-07 02:39 pm (UTC)