modular -> monolithic

[James Bottomley]

On Tue, 2008-01-22 at 18:52 -0800, David Miller wrote:
> From: Nicolas Mailhot <nicolas.mailhot at laposte.net>
> Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2008 22:32:12 +0100
> 
> > What Xorg needs more than a new build system is a ruthless long-term
> > release manager who has the authority to:
> > 1. refuse patches that make tinderbox turn red and
> > 2. kill old code and configurations no one actively maintains (old
> > drivers, non hal-input if hal is the future, etc)
> 
> I'm very glad someone brought this up.
> 
> The problem currently, which Linux didn't have, is that the people
> most qualified to do what you suggest and are currently hacking Xorg
> won't step up to do it.
> 
> And it's not because they are not able, and it's not because
> they aren't themselves willing to do it.
> 
> The problem is that doing so puts them into a political bind they
> don't want to be in.  They fear that rejecting peoples patches and
> "taking control" of the tree will be perceived as a power-move by the
> company they work for.
> 
> This is also, BTW, a major reason why the fork from the XFree86
> project didn't happen years earlier than it did.
> 
> Linus had the luxury of taking hold of the tree from the beginning,
> gaining trust and a sense of complete transparency over the years
> before he was employed by anyone.  With that precedence in place even
> once he worked for a company he told the world that it would not in
> any way influence kernel development, and people had every reason to
> believe him.
> 
> None of the Xorg developers can do this so easily, there is too much
> history and too much (at least perceived) assosciated corporate
> interest.
> 
> Now if we could get an independant organization like the Linux
> Foundation to pay one of the primary Xorg developers a 6-figure salary
> to be the Xorg patch integrator and release manager, it could work.

That's not impossible ... assuming everyone supports this.  There's
already a mechanism in place for providing specific fellowships for
things like this at the Linux Foundation.  All the Linux Foundation
would have to do is collect the funds to make this a reality (which
should be a fairly easy task assuming all the companies who have an
interest in x.org agree with the choice).

James