Realtime Linux: academia v. reality [LWN.net]

Realtime Linux: academia v. reality

Posted Jul 29, 2010 1:15 UTC (Thu) by dlang (guest, #313)
In reply to: Realtime Linux: academia v. reality by njs
Parent article: Realtime Linux: academia v. reality

the problem is that if changing your opinion is the worst possible thing you can do you are in one of two categories

1. you make the perfect decision the first time, every time

2. you do things wrong, even when you know better.

Since there is no developer who ever qualifies for #1, avoiding changing decisions at all costs would lead to having a bad system, and knowing that it was bad.

so yes, the kernel development _is_ better off by being willing to change decisions, even if that excludes some cultures from participating.

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Realtime Linux: academia v. reality

Posted Jul 29, 2010 3:41 UTC (Thu) by njs (subscriber, #40338) [Link]

I've seen two suggestions made in this thread:

1) It's somewhat problematic if leaders regularly make very strong, emphatic statements, specifically saying that this is not an ordinary decision but rather one that will never be changed under any circumstances, and then change their minds.

2) If they're going to do that anyway, then maybe that should be explained to newcomers, since their default understandings will otherwise be wildly miscalibrated.

You seem to be arguing about something else, not entirely sure what, and I don't have much to say about it.