Linux 3.8-rc6 Kernel Is Bigger Than Linus Would Like

[schmidtbag]

The kernel is full of bugs anyway. Nobody tests anything these days.

The kernel is full of bugs? Like what? Nearly all bugs i encounter are userland based. The only kernel specific problem i encounter is ACPI stuff, whether that be power saving or suspension.

[bwat47]

I don't understand Linus reasoning here.

There are projects who beg for patches/contributions, and on the other hand Linus is actually unhappy that people contribute to Linux?

WTF?

Or is Linus just not happy when people send big patches during the rc releases?

Its the second one, he gets annoyed when he gets patch bombs in the late rc stages. Makes it hard to get a stable tested kernel out when a massive amount of patches gets introduced so late...

Contributions are good, but lots of them at once late in the cycle can be bad.

The kernel is full of bugs? Like what? Nearly all bugs i encounter are userland based. The only kernel specific problem i encounter is ACPI stuff, whether that be power saving or suspension.

Yeah and a lot of the ACPI issues tend to be issues with crappy hardware ACPI implementations designed to only work properly with windows.

[asdx]

The latter. He is more than happy to accept good code when the merge window is open. RCs should be stable, thus hundreds of patches are bad, since they can not only fix, but also break things.

Its the second one, he gets annoyed when he gets patch bombs in the late rc stages. Makes it hard to get a stable tested kernel out when a massive amount of patches gets introduced so late...

Contributions are good, but lots of them at once late in the cycle can be bad.

I see, makes sense, thanks for the clarification guys, and sorry for the misunderstanding.