Some weekend stable kernel updates

Posted Jan 22, 2024 6:10 UTC (Mon) by rolexhamster (guest, #158445)
In reply to: Some weekend stable kernel updates by willy
Parent article: Some weekend stable kernel updates

There's a general "I don't care about stable" attitude amongst maintainers. To a certain extent that's fair (...)

Then what's the point of the stable kernels if nobody takes proper care of them?

The mentioned attitude from the "maintainers" (kernel developers) is akin to throwing something over the wall (look, shiny!) and then running away from all responsibilities associated with that thing.

It's as if the kernel exists only for the sake of developing the kernel.

This brings back memories of the so-called CADT (Cascade of Attention-Deficit Teenagers) development model from GNOME 2 days.

Some weekend stable kernel updates

Posted Jan 22, 2024 8:37 UTC (Mon) by geert (subscriber, #98403) [Link]

> > There's a general "I don't care about stable" attitude amongst maintainers. To a certain extent that's fair (...)

(A)

> Then what's the point of the stable kernels if nobody takes proper care of them?

> The mentioned attitude from the "maintainers" (kernel developers) is akin to throwing something over the wall (look, shiny!) and then running away from all responsibilities associated with that thing.

(B)

A and B are two different things.
I am quite sure most maintainers and kernel developers do their best to get bugs (in the upstream kernel) fixed (in the upstream kernel) ASAP.

Some weekend stable kernel updates

Posted Jan 22, 2024 8:57 UTC (Mon) by pbonzini (subscriber, #60935) [Link]

Well, if they did not work on the develoment trees, there would be no kernel at all. Having 1-2 stable kernel branches is fine, but If somebody wants to have a long-term stable kernel, they can (surprise!) pay people to do backports.

Being a developer, a subsystem maintainer and a maintainance engineer is three different jobs. Some maintainers also work on community activities such as organizing conferences, or on tasks that are required by their employers (who are agreeing to donate at least part of their employee's time to helping volunteers and developers from other companies, at times including competitors). There's just not enough time for maintainers to do and test backports to five different long-term branches, plus the two currently-active short-term stable branches.