The 3.16 kernel has been released

Posted Aug 7, 2014 1:31 UTC (Thu) by kloczek (guest, #6391)
In reply to: The 3.16 kernel has been released by raven667
Parent article: The 3.16 kernel has been released

I'm referring to that on Linux constant ignoring huge number of small issues is CAUSING "running with empty barrels" syndrome and by this there is no time to do develop more complicated functionalities.
This is causing in many cases as well "death by thousands cuts" affect.

This is like in real life. If someone will break a leg if rehabilitation will be OK someone may even fully recover. Try to spend huge part of your life walking with few small stones inside your shoe which you are not going to remove "because you are so busy".

In case btrfs someone should really kick off this fs from kernel tree.
Why? Yet another metaphor:
If few days ago NASA announced that they started testing EmDrive and no one today is thinking about using steam engine to make Solar system exploration possible. As same no one should be wasting time working on new Linux FS if it will be not using free list and few other new bits.

The 3.16 kernel has been released

Posted Aug 7, 2014 2:04 UTC (Thu) by raven667 (subscriber, #5198) [Link] (5 responses)

> I'm referring to that on Linux constant ignoring huge number of small issues is CAUSING "running with empty barrels" syndrome and by this there is no time to do develop more complicated functionalities.
This is causing in many cases as well "death by thousands cuts" affect.

Hmm, what you are describing doesn't sound like the Linux development I read about on LWN at all, I'm not seeing a lot of makework or wasted motion in what is being applied to the mainline kernel or the lack of new complex functionality due to people needing to spend all their time on bugfixing, what I am seeing is a massive amount of parallel development, a lot of people running in all different directions but each with a purpose and accomplishing some goal, like a million ants lifting and moving a city bus.

The 3.16 kernel has been released

Posted Aug 7, 2014 2:18 UTC (Thu) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]

>like a million ants lifting and moving a city bus.
Admittedly, sometimes in multiple conflicting directions at once.

The 3.16 kernel has been released

Posted Aug 7, 2014 2:50 UTC (Thu) by kloczek (guest, #6391) [Link] (3 responses)

> a lot of people running in all different directions but each with a purpose and accomplishing some goal, like a million ants lifting and moving a city bus

Perfectly encircled :)
Problem is that on Linux as platform is hard to find something even close to DTrace, ZFS, FMA, zoning, how whole network layer was rewritten in Solaris 10.
All these ants are not moving big vehicle but more trying to borrow/collect/preserve some flying dust of features/ideas originally developed on other OSes. It is nothing bad in such behavior. Sometimes something like army of ants it is exactly what you need.
Solaris needs some own "ants" as well and seems awareness of this fact is slowly growing again this time when Solaris is owned by Oracle.
It is more out keep good balance.
In last few years I'm really frustrated by messy Linux development. Working in larger and larger scales environments caused that I' easier choosing WhatIsWorking(tm) instead what I like. As consequence I'm changing my mind .. to start like WhatIsWorking(tm) :o)

About parallel development: It is not about wasting time on parallel development but more about developing more important things and fixing existing bugs or features (after more than decade after first kernel patch nfsstat still is not able to handle "nfsstat -z" which may be very frustrating sometimes).
Again: btrfs is here perfect example.

The 3.16 kernel has been released

Posted Aug 7, 2014 2:59 UTC (Thu) by neilbrown (subscriber, #359) [Link] (2 responses)

> after more than decade after first kernel patch nfsstat still is not able to handle "nfsstat -z"

Linux nfsstat deliberately doesn't support -z. It doesn't need to.

Instead of running "nfsstat -z" you run "nfsstat > myfile".
Then to see increment information, use "nfsstat --since myfile".

You could wrap this in a script which simulates "-z" if you like.

The 3.16 kernel has been released

Posted Aug 7, 2014 4:47 UTC (Thu) by kloczek (guest, #6391) [Link] (1 responses)

> You could wrap this in a script which simulates "-z" if you like

It is really funny because kernel space few lines change to allow handle -z probably will be shorter than such script.
FreeBSD netstat can do -z, Solaris can do, AIX can do and Linux cannot .. total zonk =8-o

You know sometimes it is all about the trust.
Developers are trusting the clients that they will be able to play for support.
How can I trust (as client) that Linux can do something bigger if something so trivial cannot be done?

The 3.16 kernel has been released

Posted Aug 9, 2014 12:33 UTC (Sat) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

Something so trivial can be done. Neil just showed you how you can do it. If something can be done in userspace with a trivial redirection, it arguably should not be done in kernel space, even if it is only a 'few lines change'. I don't see how not supporting a useless feature destroys 'trust', unless you for some bizarre reason expect Linux to be exactly like Solaris and AIX and consider every change to be a sign of inevitable decay and ruin.