Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: Let's redesign the entire filesystem!

[Greg KH <gregkh@gentoo.org>]

On Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 03:59:56PM +0000, Ciaran McCreesh wrote:
> On Wed, 14 Mar 2012 08:22:09 -0700
> Greg KH <gregkh@gentoo.org> wrote:
> > The people doing the work today do understand them, by virtue of
> > doing the work involved, which gives them the say in how it is done.
> > That's how open source works, why is this ever a surprise to people?
> 
> The problem is that when a small number of people who have commit
> access to core projects screw everything up and don't fix the mess
> they're inflicting upon everyone,

Again, there is a simple solution for this problem, already provided,
and supported, so no "mess" talking here please, that's just trying to
be dramatic.

> the only option left with "how open source works" is for someone to
> fork the code from the point where it all worked. That isn't something
> that should be done lightly.

Forking should ALWAYS be done lightly and often, I highly recommend it.

If you think you know how to do something better, it's best to fork,
work it out, and if you come up with something, then work to merge it
back, if at all possible.  If merging doesn't work, and it turns out
that your stuff works better, people will migrate to it, keeping it
alive.

Odds are, the fork will turn out to be a dead-end, and it will die off.
But you will then know the reasons why, and not be so upset when others
do things you disagree with.

That's the way evolution works, and it works quite well, it's why open
soure works as well as it does.

So please, fork away, I can't recommend it enough.  Remember, it's what
got us Gentoo :)

greg k-h