Sharp: Closing a door

Matthew Garrett is the guy who libelled Ted Ts'o as a "rape apologist" on his blog (as Valerie Aurora[-1] had immediately before on hers), calling explicitly for social ostracism (shunning) on him, all because of a years-old[0] mailing-list post questioning a long-debunked statistic of radical feminists used to push convention codes-of-conduct. And if that's not enough, consider the magic number policing[1], hen-pecked advocacy of "deferring to [whomever] on social issues"[2], and his belligerence at various public codes-of-conduct being modified to not include the anti-white, anti-male presuppositions. He's hardly any model of civility at all.

For technological arguments, there was that time when Garrett's vision of Secure Boot in Linux required the removal of kexec and every other feature he thought could be used to subvert Secure Boot. Pressed for argument (on the LKML, no less), he doubled down on fear: Microsoft will surely deny Linux the ability to boot on Future Computers, unless the prophet is obeyed. Had he got what he wanted, it would've placed a security-related (wholly intransparent, yet overridingly important) power of veto over all kernel architecture in his hands. Suffice it to say, the attempt was rejected -- and the follow-up, which proposed to put key signing middleware into the kernel (for unexplained but vaguely related reasons), got the short fuse. A skilled developer is able to describe and justify such submissions, whereas any well-meaning fool can claim that It Must Be So Because Security while being entirely wrong.

And check it out: Microsoft hasn't spanked all of Linux with their Secure Boot hegemony. Who'd've thunk.

But, yes, let's think that he'd finally got so sick of the awful, awful LKML culture that he chucked his toys out of the pram & went to play with the cool kids instead. It's what he says himself, isn't it. Just like Sarah Sharp, ex-kernel developer since over a year ago, cares very little for the kernel besides making grandiose demands of the ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic composition of the Linux maintainership, after her re-heated ragequit.

If there's a communication problem on the LKML, then it is something very different from what the Aurora/Garrett/Sharp triple would have you think. Those three, and their useful idiots, bring with them their very own suite of politicking, backstabbing, and behind-the-scenes abuse.

[-1] suggesting an unilaterally bitter rivarly in the filesystem space
[0] which must've taken some digging indeed
[1] no boobies in the kernel! think of the children!
[2] because of course everyone's a bleeding Rainman, desperately in need of chaperoning so as to not frighten the Women & Horses