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From: Mirian Crzig Lennox <mirian@xensei.com>
To: Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai <asmodai@wxs.nl>
Cc: Todd Whitesel <toddpw@best.com>, netbsd-advocacy@NetBSD.ORG,
        perry@piermont.com
Subject: Re: Sun jumping on Linux bandwagon
References: <XFMail.981219130600.asmodai@wxs.nl>
Original-Sender: mirian@xensei.com
Organization: The Cosmic Computing Corporation of Alpha Centauri
Date: 19 Dec 1998 13:05:01 -0500
In-Reply-To: Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai's message of "Sat, 19 Dec 1998 13:06:00 +0100 (CET)"
Message-ID: <m3n24kgg8i.fsf@trantor.cosmic.com>
Lines: 36

Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai <asmodai@wxs.nl> writes:
> I know that as an `outside' developer, if I manage to catch a bug during a compile
> and just mention it as a PR and even be able to provide a fix to it, that I'll be
> happy just to have contributed to a worthy goal. This is the fanatism mayhaps
> that makes/made Linux what it is today. This and their idiotic reverence of the
> GPL, but that's another story...

This fanaticism cuts both ways, though.  I actually think Linux
development has a problem in that it is TOO highly parallelized.  Even 
dyed-in the wool Linux hackers think so, sometimes-- look at this
quote from linux-kernel:

	There is something frustrating about the quality and speed of
	Linux development.  I.e. the quality is too high and the speed is
	too high, in other words, I can implement this XXXX feature, but I
	bet someone else has already done it and is just about to release
	his patch to Linus soon...
	[From a posting of Tigran Aivazian to linux-kernel, XXXX = disk stat]

Linux folks make light of this problem, but it is real; if you want to
contribute to Linux, unless you are working on something really
esoteric, you have to work fast to beat out the other people working
on the same thing.  This can be a recipe for some truly sloppy work.

I wouldn't mind seeing a policy where more people had commit access to
development branches of the NetBSD source -- and if it meant that new
people had to "do their time" shoveling manure (i.e. fixing the less
glamorous PRs) in order to establish themselves, I think this would be
just fine -- but there should be some mechanism by which someone could
"own" a problem/feature for a while, so as to prevent the wasteful
competitive behaviour above.

-- 
Mirian Crzig Lennox                                Systems Anarchist
          "There's a New World Order coming every minute.
                      Make mine extra cheese."