Maybe/Maybe Not.
Posted Aug 22, 2003 5:20 UTC (Fri) by
namaseit (guest, #13940)
Parent article:
Maybe SCO had a point
I will agree. The process of accepting code into the linux kernel should maybe be more
refined. Not that it isnt a careful process already, but as to save ourselves again. I have no
clue how to accomplish this. Maybe the people that code is accepted from should be
checked on more to make sure some employee of XYZ Inc. isnt putting in his companys
code. But this almost indefinately ruins the kernel process. That anyone can send in a
patch and the best code wins. Now we have to check on the people sending in patches
and fixes. To make sure they arent affiliatted with any company. And then to ask their
employer if any of the code they are submitting belongs to them. Thats all i can think of.
How do you check on code you cant see, and how do you refine a process that is
built on people sending in code. I mean the kernel developers write at least 50k lines of
code *each* month. That is insane. How do you check all of that.
This is where i see OSS and proprietary meeting and clashing. Its life. But we have
to get beyond this and figure out as a community how we avoid these kinds of situations.
This will, i fear, hinder the OSS process we all use. Besides SCO, i honestly doubt there is
any other companies who would say we have infringed on their code. How many others
would be nuts enough to risk their entire business on the maybe/maybe not of their code
being in linux. SCO is doing this as a last chance tactic. And as OSS grows in the market
and the world, companies like Microsoft will try much harder to destroy us and all we have
accomplished and stand for. Because we threaten everything *they* stand for. But what
they dont understand is that they cant kill linux, cause its an idea. They can slow its
adoption, but it will just come back. They can slam it with FUD, but the community doesnt
care. Linux is here to stay.
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