The 2.5 Kernel Tree And Alan Cox 247
Motor writes "It seems that (as everyone suspected), the 2.5 Linux kernel tree is close to opening. However, contrary to expectations, 2.4 will not be maintained by Alan Cox, but will instead be handled by Marcelo Tosatti. Thanks to Alan for all his hard work on 2.0 and 2.2."
Will this continue? (Score:5, Insightful)
Essentially, the only reason NON-platform-specific stuff gets through faster is because it all goes to Alan Cox, who then stuffs them into his own tree (the -ac* patches). When he decides they're stable enough to pass on, he breaks them up into bite-sized pieces for Linus.
Re:Will this continue? (Score:2, Interesting)
This means: A kernel officially released as "Release" should be VERY stable. Stable enough for anyone to put it on his most important servers, without a second thought.
Remember the problems the 2.2 series went through.
Maybe a new version tag is needed, additionally to the the odd numbers, and the "pre" and "ac" tags.
Like "ea" for "early adopter". Whatever. Anything above "beta".
The distributions would offer two kernels then: "ea" and "stable as hell".
And "stable as hell" is what "release" should mean.
PS: Potential deficiencies in the NT release versions are not really of interest here. Linux can do better. The people in control of the kernel dont need to care about public company quarter results.
Re:Will this continue? (Score:2)
Whatever value the variable "stable" has for a given 2.4.x kernel, it can not be stored in a boolean type.
A stable kernel series is one where the aim of development is to increase stability over adding new features. 2.4.0 was released to get a greater number of people testing the kernel. That testing showed cases where a kernel with worked well with the developers loads fell down under different loads. Linus took the drastic step of replacing the VM in the middle of a stable series with a different one. He had come to the conclusion that the Riel VM was too complex to fix all of these cases and it did essentially random things rather than well planned things. It looks like he made the right decision.
I personally wouldn't recommend switching to a stable series in a production server until the next experimental series has been started.
Alan Cox and the DMCA (Score:4, Interesting)
It is a sad day, if US laws are scaring off foreign OSS coders.
This moderator stinks (Score:1)
Re:This moderator stinks (Score:1)
What about the diversity of the kernel team? (Score:1, Interesting)
So, who are we going to get to replace Alan Cox? It seems to me that you're going to need Eric Allman or some type of person like that to fill the same roll as Alan has.
Re:What about the diversity of the kernel team? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What about the diversity of the kernel team? (Score:2, Informative)
But is this really a bad thing? I mean, don't get me wrong; Alan has been wonderful and instrumental to Linux going where it has gone. But the beauty and power of open source is the diversity of its developers. If Alan maintained all stable trees from now on, the kernel would certainly get incredible attention and development. However, it would be Alan's tree. Again, not that this is a bad thing. Yet, sometimes you need some new blood just to get that spark going again. Just my view on the whole situation.
Kudos to the whole team though. And thanks Alan for the great work. Good luck on the new endeavors.
why would someone want to maintain an old kernel? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:why would someone want to maintain an old kerne (Score:1)
Re:why would someone want to maintain an old kerne (Score:2)
And there's fun and engagement in most aspects of life, if you are open to it.
Re:why would someone want to maintain an old kerne (Score:3, Insightful)
It sounds boring to me... Adding new features should be more engaging then fixing bugs and pleasing users.
Ah, but you are forgetting that more people actually use the stable 2.4 kernel as part of many many distributions. Having the responsibility of maintaining this very important (and mission critical in many cases) kernel is right on par with making the next version. It's just a different kind of responsibility.
New Maintainer weblog? (Score:3)
Re:New Maintainer weblog? (Score:2)
Re:New Maintainer weblog? - karma whoring at 50.. (Score:4, Informative)
Here is some info on our new maintainer..
Marcelo works for Connectiva. He lives with "Rik". He looks like [conectiva.com.br]this.
His weblog is here. [advogato.org]
His "homepage" area is here [conectiva.com.br]
And I gotta say.. impressive to get that level of responsibility at his age..
Re:New Maintainer weblog? - he looks like.. (Score:2)
Best of all: he's a pleasant fellow (Score:2)
Mirror of the text, site was slowing down.... ;) (Score:5, Redundant)
Posted 2 Nov 2001 by alan
People will have been wondering about the 2.4 stable kernel progression. Various bizarre rumours in Byte seem to have generated a lot of discussion and rumour. Now that the people concerned are all agreed its time to put the entire roadmap out and make it clear.
Linus will be releasing a 2.4.14 and probably a 2.4.15 finishing off the VM stability work and other rough corners. At that point the 2.5 kernel tree will be opened. There is a lot stuff queued for 2.5. It isn't going to be possible or sensible to throw it all into 2.5.0. One of the tasks is to put changes together in the right order.
Marcelo Tosatti will be the head maintainer over the 2.4 stable kernel tree. This is not the giant change it may seem from the outside. The stable kernel management was and is a group effort. Marcelo and many others have been active in 2.2 and 2.4 stabilisation work. I'll be helping Marcelo with advice when he asks it, and working on feeding him the 2.4 relevant bits of the -ac tree.
I will not be dissappearing from the scene, although I might be a little less visible at times. There are various kernel projects I will be working on as well as spending more time concentrating on Red Hat customer related needs. I'm hopeful that spending more time closer to customers will help provide more insight into where 2.5 needs to be going.
David Weinehall did a great job on 2.0.39 when he took over 2.0 from me.I'm very confident that Marcelo will do a great job on 2.4.
Alan
Re:Mirror of the text, site was slowing down.... ; (Score:2)
>he took over 2.0 from me.I'm very confident that
>Marcelo will do a great job on 2.4.
I am also very glad that someone from a "third world country" takes this reponsability, that shows that Linux is really an international effort and not only dominated by rich or developed countries. It's very nice to see also that a lot of hacking in Linux is occuring in Brasil, I hope other third world countries will follow. That's why free/open source software is so nice everybody has it's chance, this is another aspect of it.
Re:Mirror of the text, site was slowing down.... ; (Score:3, Funny)
'Course that won't stop me from suing the perpetrator under the DMCA anyway, once I find out who he is.
So Long, Alan... (Score:3, Funny)
- Tux
Alan Cox is doing the right thing (Score:5, Interesting)
While AC has done a great job of judging the priorities of the Linux community as a whole over the priorities of Red hat, there is still the question of how much his employeement at RH effects him. Anotherwords, for example, Ext3/JBD is a kernel modification that Red hat is very much pushing. It now appears in all Red hat v7.2 kernels. Also, the Ext3/JBD modifications have appeared for a while in the AC patches. But if these modification started appearing in the 2.4 kernel, others might question if it is because it is truely ready to be in 2.4 or if Red hat is using their AC position to strong arm submittions. Clearly IBM and SGI would also like to see their file system additions in the vanilla 2.4 kernel series. Having to justify the addition of one over the other shouldn't have to be AC's job.
So, I believe Alan Cox is doing the best technical and *political* choice for the Linux community as a whole.
Ext3/JBD (Score:5, Informative)
RH doesn't get to decide what I feed to Linus,and Linus wouldn't listen if they did. XFS is 2.5 material certainly. JFS I don't know - Im watching it with great interest.
Alan
Starstruck ;-) (Score:5, Funny)
Andrew
Re:Starstruck ;-) (Score:4, Funny)
I noticed him standing next to me and I just exclaimed "Alan Cox!" I was so overcome I couldn't say anything else. He just smiled... like I was some kind of idiot... which I suppose I was. I then drifted off to the Debian stand to buy a T-shirt.
Yes, meeting Dubya would most certainly not have left such an imprint on my mind.
Re:Starstruck ;-) (Score:1)
Re:Starstruck ;-) (Score:2, Interesting)
Alan tends to make more sense than most politicos.
In a world where wiping out an entire village is called "servicing a target", Alan is a refreshing breath of honesty and intellect.
Hats off to Alan
There is still room in this world for integrity and excellence. There is still room for Alan.
Bill C. -- Detroit, MI, USA
Linux a.genesis.com 2.4.13 #1 Fri Nov 2 23:03:37 EDT 2001 i686 unknown
11:03pm up 4:12, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.07, 0.14
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 1545296 461208 1084088 0 66020 308944
-/+ buffers/cache: 86244 1459052
Swap: 401584 0 401584
Total: 1946880 461208 1485672
BTW
Re:AC for President (was Re:Starstruck ;-) ) (Score:3, Funny)
Actually, I think Alan would make a great president
VM vs VM resolved? (Score:1)
The VM is simply more important, and as of 2.4.14pre7 basically works (there are a couple of corner cases left where it fails) - and is much faster than the older Riel VM. That was a concluded experiment anyway
So the story linked to from a couple of days ago, about Linus accepting the entirely new VM code and you holding on to the old VM, is resolved, with no threat of a fork?
Give them a round of applause! (Okay, I watch BBC too much :-P )
Re:I will never close this window! (Score:1)
Re:I will never close this window! (Score:1)
Today was another reason why. one of the upgrades
overwrote
apt may be the best of package managers but it's still only as good as the idiots who maintain the packages.
Re:Alan Cox is doing the right thing (Score:2)
This has absolutely nothing to do with Alan's employment at Redhat, don't be silly.
Furthermore, it has nothing to do with politics.
Re:Alan Cox is doing the right thing (Score:2)
>>This has absolutely nothing to do with Alan's employment at Redhat, don't be silly.
Furthermore, it has nothing to do with politics.
Are you sure about that? As a business owner, I would do whatever it takes, to have one of the top ten names of a very specific field under my employment. And if that person see's my vision then I in!
Hell, I believe that Mr. Cox is pushed ( ever so gently ) in the Red Hat direction. He might not even know it.
Business being business, he will have to cross certain lines, and a paycheck in this environment is worth a lot more than a minor code change.
I hope I'm wrong about Mr. Cox
-onepoint
Re:Alan Cox is doing the right thing (Score:2)
Well, everyone is 'pushed gently' by his environment. That's what input is for. I think AC is able to judge for himself, which suggestions are worth considering and which are not. Also, judging from AC's bringing up the DMCA in his changelog, he's not the man to be pushed around, and if he let's himself be pushed around he probably does it for his own reasons.
Also AC has the talent and the influence, to be able to 'push around' Red Hat, like have an influence on their list of projects/priorities. Now does that make Red-Hat a puppet of Alan Cox? I think not. Neither is it the other way round.
You may have cause and effect reversed (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyone who's followed Alan Cox for a while would laugh at the notion that Alan could be a Red Hat puppet. The day he has a falling out with Red Hat, he'll instantly get a substantial amount of money from some other company. If anything, Alan's involvement in a company that has to support users makes him a better judge of many things than someone in Linus's more isolated position.
If Red Hat is pushing a particular technical direction for Linux, it's quite likely that the reason for the push is because of the expert opinions of the many kernel hackers that work for them as to which code is mature enough to support.
Companies with lots of money that might hire Alan (Score:2)
No, he would do well, I am sure. I think his skills are very marketable.
Re:Alan Cox is doing the right thing (Score:3, Funny)
"AC"??? We're trusting the kernel to an Anonymous Coward?
Re:Alan Cox is doing the right thing (Score:2, Interesting)
You can look at ext3 and regard as a hack on ext2, which means a lot less new code to check. XFS and JFS were were tested, but in other people's kernels. Reiser was already there but there were some open issues (which I know ill be resolved, but that again is a lot of code), so I respect AC's decision to use ext3 and RH's support for it.
My issue is not so much with AC's patches but with RH's choice of kernel, even then they had to move versions inside a week. In the end, it is non-trivial to take a new stock kernel and to patch it to a level where it is compatible with the 2.4.9-7 that they currently ship. That is, it isn't currently either a pure AC kernel or one from the main-tree.
Re:Alan Cox is doing the right thing (Score:2)
Then, why would it necessarily be bad, if Red-Hat took some interest in kernel-development (i'm sure they do), it's not as if red-hat wanted something bad for linux or so. Finally, by being more involved with the development of 2.5 from the start, AC has far more influence on the development of future Kernels, than by maintaining the stable tree.
New boss (Score:5, Funny)
-Tony Soprano
Re:New boss (Score:1, Offtopic)
Alan rules. (Score:5, Insightful)
Most people don't know this but in the weekly kernel traphic he is usualy listed #1 in volume of messages. He also subscibes to and discuses important isues in many other places from slashdot.org to the kde-licensing mailing list.
BTW: Read his diary [linux.org.uk]. That's how I found out that he is a GNU fundamentalist
Speaking of Telsa. Her site "The more accurate diary. Really. [linux.org.uk]" should be requird reading for anyone dateing a Linux geek with serius intentions towards that geek.
Re:Alan rules. (Score:2, Funny)
Hurray for Alan! (Score:2)
Alan can do what he wants. And we should be so happy that he does. Anyone who thinks otherwise should take a vacation.
I apologize for riding the coattails of a high-ranking post, but I just had to gush.
We were suprised as well (Score:4, Interesting)
OTH, Linus continues assuming is Alan the responsible [bulmalug.net] (Spanish too).
Re:We were suprised as well (Score:1)
No mention of Alan or Marcelo. There is -- if you dig deeply -- a mention [helsinki.fi] of the 2.4.13-ac4 kernel not having a problem with mmapping in certain situations.
But I don't see anything at all about Alan still being responsible.
It is quite possible that due to my rusty Spanish (and the fact that I'm a BSDite) that I've missed some subtle indicators, but I don't think so.
Time Off?? (Score:4, Interesting)
Alan also seems to work on HIS kernel, and then let everybody use it. He never intended to be such a dominant voice, no matter how strong his opinions. I think when good technical discussions between he and Linus get publicized as being interminable rifts (which believe me they are not) he tends to step back, being the less media visible member and wanting to avoid the appearance of a disastrous controversy.
And quite frankly, how many of us work 6 months on our hobby and then take some time off?? I sure do...
Wait until the Kernel gets exciting again, AC'll be back.
~Hammy
nothing4sale.org
WindowsXP was crashing like a monkey driving a Pinto.
I think he has a girlfriend! (Score:1)
Where did linus say this on lkml?? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Where did linus say this on lkml?? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Where did linus say this on lkml?? (Score:1)
linus just seems to want to sleep! How is he supposed to hack VM being just a cat?
On a more sane note - I think Alan has done a wonderful job. I use -ac kernels almost exclusively, apart from my main machine where I use LVM [sistina.com] which doesn't apply very well to the -ac kernels.
I read alan's diary regularly, if only for the british humour that american's just don't get
I personally would love a job where I could rise after mid-day and hack on kernels all night and eat lots of fish fingers.
I am however quite glad that Alan will be able to concentrate on other things - from what I've seen of his diary, he seems more suited to hacking around, trying new things for the hell of it, rather than just keeping something working.
Best of luck to Marcelo, I am sure you have Interesting Times ahead!
D'Oh!!! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:D'Oh!!! (Score:1)
Wow! 2.5... (Score:1, Interesting)
*Note* I'm not a troll, really. I do love linux, and I'll even admit that iptables is much nicer than ipchains. But please.... let me catch up, for crying out loud. I guess it could be worse, microshit marketdriods could invade, and it would be renamed Kernel 2002. *barf*
What about 2.2? (Score:2)
Re:What about 2.2? (Score:2, Funny)
Recognizing our community's volunteers (Score:1)
One thing we always have to remember in volunteer projects is that people come and go. The only respectful thing that can be done at times like this is to be supportive of our contributors' choices and let them pursue their own courses in life.
The Linux kernel is riding on more than enough popularity that it's not in any danger of failing to find new contributors. But for smaller Open Source projects, this kind of thing is why you'd want to always recruit new volunteers and try to build up a core of leaders in your projects. Then you're able to get through the inevitable times when volunteers need to take a break or go do something else.
His own words. (Score:2, Informative)
The Alternative 2.5.x tree is already here (Score:2)
FOLK merges in the -ac stuff, much of the -aa stuff, LOTS of real-time code (RTHAL, RTSCHED, RTNET), scheduler plug-ins, much of SGI's debug code, JFS and XFS, support for compressed & buggy memory, software suspend, the VAX architecture, VME support, PPSCSI, ISCSI, CBM64 device support, support for assorted low-budget network controllers, COMEDI and all sorts of other wonderfully insane stuff.
More significantly, most of the "newer" features in the -ac code were in FOLK first - compressed ISO images, e3fs, PPC64 support, plug-in network protocols, etc.
This is not to say that Alan Cox is slack -- I didn't wait for stability before adding stuff into FOLK. What it =IS= saying is that the FOLK series is one of the most advanced Linux kernels out there. There are not many "custom" kernels out there with nearly the scope. (Although it has to be said that most of them beat FOLK hands-down on reliability.)
IMHO, we have all waited far too long for 2.5.0 to be released, and 2.4.x has proven to be too experimental, due to pressures to finish the 2.3.x development series too soon.
If nobody takes me up on my suggestion on using an existing custom kernel as a "2.5.0-wannabe", then at the very very least, ply Linus with virtual beer until he agrees to ensure that the REAL 2.5.0 is not hampered by being kept in sync with 2.4.x, but is the Dream Kernel.
Look, development is very easy. It's easy, because you can build on something that's there. But you can't so easily build on something that isn't. It's also easier to take components out than add them in.
The only logical conclusion is to stuff 2.5.0 silly, and see what survives.
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:2)
Basically, get off your high horse and let the man fight the good fight....
IHBT and HAND (Score:1, Flamebait)
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=23078&cid=2
You'll have to c&p 'cuz I'm lazy and long urls never work with
Re:IHBT and HAND (Score:1)
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:2, Troll)
So if I have a personal agenda that all people should be Christians, and I decide to use my position as a kernel maintainer to espouse my views, you have no problem with that? You would have no problem with my putting my opinion in the kernel source code?
There is a proper time and a proper place for these things.
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:1)
Debian GNU/Linux stable
jon login: root
Password:
Do you read the Bible 37 times or more a week? no
Oops! Bad response at 0x4b856
Rebooting in 180 seconds...
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:2, Interesting)
Although this is a troll, I STRONGLY support this post. His political views have no place in a development tree. To all of those who think it's OK because they happen to agree with him on the views, how about if kernel maintainers started putting in comments about their pro-life stance, their pro-Christian religious views, or their pro-gun views (at least ESR his views on the latter separate most of the time).
I don't know about anyone else, but I've lost a considerable amount of respect since he started his DMCA ravings. Anyone is entitled to an opinion, but anyone is NOT entitled to abuse their position to foist opinions where they are not needed and/or not wanted.
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:1, Troll)
Bullshit. He did the equivalent of saying, "Because of my belief that all people should not be allowed to own handguns, I am withholding this information from the changelog because it might upset Eric Raymond and he will come to kill me."
His scenerio was just as absurd and ridiculous. Just because he contrived a way to put politics in the changelog doesn't mean it's OK.
Once again I ask: What if he contrived a way to put politics in the changelog that you DIDN'T agree with? Would it still be OK?
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:2)
My level of respect for him has gone neither up nor down. I don't see how this was abuse of power any more than Linus saying that clubbing seals is wrong.
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:3, Interesting)
In the *changelog*. Not the code.
Personally, I consider the change log as part of the code.
Was it irrelevant (i.e., was he refusing to put in an OOM-killer because of pro-life views)? No, it was an extrapolation of how the law is currently written and was directly related to the topic at hand (security).
Yes, it was irrelevent. He contrived an absurd scenerio just so he could make a political statement. Put it this way -- why did he do it? Because he was in legitimate danger? No, he did it because he wanted to publicize his political views. A change log is NOT for publicizing your views, no matter what they are.
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:3, Insightful)
Fah, Kernel developers should do whatever the heck they want, and we should all be grateful. When you start paying Mr. Cox for his work then perhaps you might be able to gain some leverage over how he expresses his opinions. In the meantime, why should anyone listen to you?
Here's an idea. Why don't you code up something half as nifty as whatever Alan will code up over breakfast tomorrow, release it as Free Software for the world to see, and put in your Changelog that Alan is a wanker. Perhaps the people that use your software will care what you have to say.
As far as I am concerned Free Software is a perfectly good medium for espousing your political views. Especially since if you don't like Alan's views you can still use his excellent software without being subject to them.
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:1)
So if he started listing the names and addresses of abortion doctors who he believes should be killed in the Linux changelog, that's hunky dory with you? We should just be grateful to him?
He can do what he wants, and I don't pay attention to his politics. That doesn't mean he isn't an idiot, or that he doesn't damage the cause that he claims to care about. Putting crap like that in the changelog just validates all the stereotypes about open source software -- that it's created by unprofessional freaks.
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:2)
Would you rather he break the law?
--jeff
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:1)
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:2, Insightful)
You assume that he is just having political issues with the DMCA and as a UK citizen, he won't be affected anyway. However, he has strong ties to the US (remember, Red Hat's US-based, and he does work for them) and the Skylarov episode shows that it actually _is_ a possible reason for indictment if you write code that defies some arbitrary rules. This is what the DMCA has been used for.
This is why Alan Cox has all the right in the world, as a kernel maintainer in the global Free Software/Open Source community, to do everything he can to allow him to continue writing code. Fighting the DMCA is not a politically correct thing, it's a necessity for him to keep on working. If it's _also_ what he - coincidentally - believes in, it doesn't change its validity.
Yours Arondylos #8-)
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:2)
Your example is flawed. Listing the names of private citizens who you think should be killed is not protected free speech in any civilized part of the world. However, if he were to put something in the changelog to the effect that abortion was bad (or good) without endangering people's lives or abridging their rights, then that would be different. If he were to want to include scriptures from the Koran in every comment, or wax on at length about the rain forest then that would be fine too.
I find it hard to believe that I have to explain this to "Reality Master 101" but people have differences of opinion. I personally disagree with the politics of quite a few well known hackers, but it doesn't keep me from using their software.
You are right, however, when you state that sometimes people let these unrelated political views cloud their judgement when it comes to technical matters. If Alan Cox worked for me, then I would probably ask him to refrain from similar politics in the future. He doesn't work for me, however, nor you. And truth be told he is a bit of an unprofessional freak. All you need to do is see a picture of him to know that :). Better yet, read his online journal some time.
The kernel development group is a meritocracy. If Alan were to start spending more time politicking than hacking, he would almost certainly get to the point where he had a hard time getting his patches included in the kernel source. That isn't likely to be the case any time soon.
If you are easily offended by such things, then there is almost certainly a Free Software group that would offend your sensibilities. One of the mailing lists I read is populated by developers that all have scriptures in their .sig, another has a heaping helping of homosexuals (nice alliteration, huh). Some hackers are gun nuts, some are ultra-liberal, some don't bathe regularly :). All of these people speak their mind, and all of them have opinions that are likely to converge from yours and mine. Some probably are idiots, but if they are they are software idiot savants.
Either way there is nothing we can do about it without limiting their freedom. They don't work for us, and don't have to abide by our rules to stay employed.
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:2)
people have differences of opinion. I personally disagree with the politics of quite a few well known hackers, but it doesn't keep me from using their software.
Whether I disagree or not with his opinion is not the point (I happen to agree). It's using the source code and his position as a forum based on that contrived crap that he pulled out.
He can advocate anything he wants; I have no problem with it. But he should be a little more professional about where he does it.
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:2)
Well then, I agree with you :). Linux kernel developers should deport themselves with as much dignity and aplomb as possible. You are certainly correct that political opinions, even ones as relevant as this one, can certainly reflect badly on Linux in the eyes of some folks.
On the other hand, I can't help but think that Alan Cox deserves to be able to use the Linux kernel as a soapbox. After all, who knows if it would even exist without his tireless efforts. He almost certainly knew that some people wouldn't appreciate his statement, but apparently it meant enough to him to make it anyhow.
Linux Kernel hackers do what they do for the fun and the fame. An unfortunate side effect of this is that it creates a platform for opinionated, outspoken, "unprofessional" Unix hackers. Being able to speak out about issues like the DMCA and be heard is part of the reason that people hack Free Software. It's also a major difference between working on Linux and working on a commercial operating system. The guys hacking the Windows kernel get paid more than Alan, but hardly anyone knows who they are. Taking away Alan's right to use (and even abuse) his "fame" would make Alan both underpaid and under motivated.
Besides, he was right :). He could have been a little more professional, but apparently it is very important to him.
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:4, Interesting)
my personal feeling is that all the work alan has put in on the kernel project _specifically entitles_ him to highlight some issue _directly relevant_ to continued linux development.
my policy-perspective, assuming a mythical world where linux is a company and i own it, is that political viewpoints should be expressly disallowed in the any part of the source tree, to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. in this case, his efforts are on-topic and don't qualify so much as an expression company-politics (like backstabbing and jibber jabber) or social-politics (like gun control or christianity) but deal specifically with intellectual-property-politics.
end of story.
as he is one of the helmsman of the linux community i applaud his efforts. that i can run entire companies and isp's, securely, with near 100% uptime without using a single windows server due to his (and the many others) efforts encourages me to listen when he speaks... not jump up and down about gun control.
besides, come on people!!! if you can't get an uncensored copy of the changelog with nothing more than a web/ftp client then you're in the wrong business!
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:2)
The scenerio is only absurd because nobody is likely to prosecute. That doesn't change the fact that he would have been violating the letter of the DMCA. Documenting a security bug is a violation of current U.S. law if that security is used to protect copyrighted material.
So what should Alan do in this situation. Yes, he can ignore the law and chances are he won't be convicted, but the potential penalty is 5 years in prison and $500,000 [cryogenius.com]. Is it worth the risk? If you think it's worthwhile then you can find the bug and document it, but don't ask somebody else to do it for you.
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:1)
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:3, Insightful)
Your argument is not relevant. Religion or gun laws have very little direct impact upon kernel development (for the most part - we can all make up spurious arguments to try and show otherwise). Copyright law has a direct impact not just on the programmers in the country passing the law but also, in the case of the DMCA, on hackers in other countries.
Whether one agrees or disagees with Cox and his tactics, the poloitics involved are affecting the development of Linux (the OS and the kernel) and other Free Software.
- Derwen
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:4, Insightful)
In my opinion, his comments were directly applicable to kernel development. Gun control, abortion, and Christian views on the otherhand, seem inapplicable to kernel development.
According to the DMCA, it is illegal to post information about such vulnerabilities, and he took steps necessary to protect himself from prosection under United States federal law should he ever set foot in that country.
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:1)
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:2)
Of course it's politics (Score:1, Insightful)
As, for the artical the author looks like he is fumming because as a US citizen he is being kept in the dark about "secret" kernel changes. The author then goes on to say "with his typical English resentment of the former colonies who have long since outstripped England in world influence". What has this got to do it anyway? Has ANYONE ever heard of Alan acting in this way? I doubt it, infact if Alan was german I can just imagine some Nazi comment in its place. I just stopped reading the article there since this guy is obviously out to slure Alan because he is being inconvienced by a *law* that is active in *his* country. I mean, remember all the non-US servers when we had crypto laws??
Re:Of course it's politics (Score:1)
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:1)
I went to the site listed in the post. That site was comical in its outraged critical tone toward Mr. Cox. However, the ftp site for non-Americans to view the changelog was correctly indicated. Frankly, it was a slap in the face to have to say you were not an American citizen to view the changelog.
Who would file a complaint to prosecute Mr. Cox under the DMCA? No one. Therefore, Mr. Cox's actions can only be viewed as themselves a troll, an unjustified insult.
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:4, Insightful)
Who would file a complaint to prosecute Mr. Cox under the DMCA? No one. Therefore, Mr. Cox's actions can only be viewed as themselves a troll, an unjustified insult.
Whether or not anyone would file a complaint to prosecute him, he would still be breaking the law, according to the advice he was given. I find it hard to criticise him for not breaking it, and even harder to justify the argument that he should have broken the law to avoid being insulting.
If you don't like the consequences of your laws, then pressure your elected representatives to change them.
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:5, Interesting)
Avoiding jail is not being polical!
You may have the opinion that anything Alan does as a kernel developer/maintainer is not affected by the DMCA and will not result in charges from some over zelous DA, but I seriously doubt there are any lawyers out there that would back you up. There have to be quite a few court rulings before anyone will even have a feel for this.
One of the reasons that everyone calls DMCA bad law is it's total lack of boundaries. This makes it unpredictable law, subject to abuse. While you and I may feel that there would be no justification to jail someone because they worked on CD/DVD drivers that someone else could use to run DECSS(?) is no guarantee for Alan or anyone else that someone won't arrest them and see what the courts say.
Avoiding being someone's legal guinea pig is not being political.
Re:Alan Cox hijacked development (Score:2)
Not travelling to the US would be avoiding jail. Not releasing a changelog because he's scared of the DMCA is 100% political.
And you've never heard (Score:1)
Besides, it's his changelog, he can do whatever he wants in it. If you don't like it, do the diff and post your own damn change log.
The DMCA was used in an absolutely absurd way to jail and prosecute Dmitry Skylarov. Why exactly would equally stupid things not happen in the future?
And besides, why is the only responsible thing to do to (possibly) break US law and then never again go to the united states. Why can't he just avoid breaking US law entirely, and leave himself the option of coming here and not being jailed?
Neither prison nor jail are pleasant. Neither is being tried for a crime. I wonder how you speak with such flippancy on these matters when it has be demonstrated the the current US legal system is not sane.
When you think about it, it's pretty scary how many things which are illegal but shouldn't be that people can be imprisoned for a long time.
Re:2.5 Here we come (Score:2, Insightful)
Bollocks. What's "childish" about it? The whole reason the DMCA got onto the lawbooks was because people were too bloody complacent - you should be glad that people who aren't even American citizens are concerned enough about it to put up a fight. It might even convince some Americanos to grow a spine and stand up to irrational, corporate-financed laws like the DMCA.
DMCA (Score:5, Insightful)
All uncensored change logs are on
http://www.thefreeworld.net for non US citizens. US citizens take their own chances
Re: not posting changelog notes (Score:1)
Re:VM is the reason? (Score:3, Informative)
He'd be free to rip out the Andrea VM if he wanted; however, I believe his concern is not about the technical aspects of the new VM but the principles involved in making deep changes to a stable kernel.
Re:VM is the reason? (Score:1)
Besides, i've read that the VM has been screwed for the majority of the 2.4 kernel, both before and after the AA VM was introduced.
Re:VM is the reason? (Score:2)
Re:Welcome Back! (Score:1)
Re:GPL -- nice but inconsistent [Off Topic] (Score:1)
Almost all large companies have subdivisions and many projects, and inevitably, a commitee is usually formed to take alot of this duplicate effort and condense and reuse it. See, code sharing is something that occurs at all levels and is a natural thing give the nature of programming.
Not everything should be GPL'd. Things that go through a QA process or things that have some kind of assurance of quality should not be GPL'd since the GPL releases the creator of any liability which would be counterproductive. Often times though, in the commerical sector, code is also provide with a product since that way the customer can modify it to suit their needs since most companies don't want to be bothered with custom features.
Your post seemed though-out although posting as an AC doesn't help your cause...