Torvalds: No picnic to become major Linux coder (ZDNet) [LWN.net]

Torvalds: No picnic to become major Linux coder (ZDNet)

Posted Aug 19, 2008 17:09 UTC (Tue) by pr1268 (subscriber, #24648) [Link]

Perish the thought that Linus would slam the door shut on any future opportunity whatsoever to re-write the kernel in large chunks--after all, that's how Udev and breaking-the-4GB-barrier (in 32-bit x86) were developed. But, after reading the article, and knowing that those two projects were done by experienced kernel developers (forgive me for not mentioning them by name--I don't remember at the moment), it would appear that wholesale kernel revisions could be done; it's just that whoever does so better really know what they're doing. (And be able to make a convincing argument for the change.)

On an unrelated topic, I just noticed a banner ad on the right side of the LWN page from Microsoft Live Search. Granted, I realize our editors have to put food on the table and save for their kids' college, but... Microsoft? Say it ain't so!

Banner ad

Posted Aug 19, 2008 17:17 UTC (Tue) by corbet (editor, #1) [Link]

That's the problem when dealing with ad networks; you never quite know what you're going to get. Once you see an ad which doesn't fit, you can filter it out, but it's a perennial game of whack-a-mole.

Thanks, and more banner ad fun

Posted Aug 19, 2008 17:40 UTC (Tue) by pr1268 (subscriber, #24648) [Link]

Thank you, Jon. I should have realized that LWN is using some sort of wholesale banner ad clearinghouse, and the source of specific ads may not be known until they're displayed in the client web browser.

Even more off-topic fun to be had with the Yellowbook.com banner ad I just now noticed on LWN: The fields were pre-populated with "Linux/Unix" as the product/service (seems appropriate), but the ZIP code is spooky: 73301. This is one of those totally-out-of-place ZIP codes that the USPS gave the IRS for its Austin, TX regional service center. Yes, I'm posting this from a computer in the Austin area (not the IRS building!), but all other ZIP codes in Austin use 787xx. Weird....

Torvalds: No picnic to become major Linux coder (ZDNet)

Posted Aug 27, 2008 11:52 UTC (Wed) by jlokier (guest, #52227) [Link]

As best as I can tell from the outside, the two changes you mentioned weren't done by individual developers doing that work autonomously then submitting it. They were discussed and planned at conferences of kernel developers, before the changes were implemented by individual people. So yes, they had to know what they were doing, but also they had to participate in the kernel development community of higher-level decision making.