Jonathan Corbet
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
@kernellogger @LWN That guy in the red sweater sure knows how to stand out in a crowd :)
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
"LWN is basically what ChatGPT summarization as advertised itself to be, except it's actually good and coherent and useful."
— HN commenter saagarjha https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41643325
Nice to know we haven't been overtaken quite yet :)
— HN commenter saagarjha https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41643325
Nice to know we haven't been overtaken quite yet :)
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
So here I am in an airline lounge in Munich when suddenly everybody's phone starts simultaneously screaming bloody murder. I'm trying to decrypt the flashing red message in German, wondering if I have time to say goodbye to my family before whatever apocalypse is coming hits. Eventually I find the second version in English... It's national alert test day. I guess I can get another coffee after all.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
@vegard @kernellogger @linuxplumbersconf The role of the TAB has shifted over the years, but its purpose has *always* been to serve the community. It was originally created, all of those years ago, to try to better align OSDL with how the community worked.
The best thing the current TAB does, IMO, is to serve as a place for maintainers with a certain amount of community influence to discuss and head off problems before they explode.
The best thing the current TAB does, IMO, is to serve as a place for maintainers with a certain amount of community influence to discuss and head off problems before they explode.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
@schicho @kernellogger The conventional wisdom since forever has been that *no* general-purpose operating-system kernel can provide realtime response (meaning that the highest-priority process is guaranteed to run within a defined maximum latency). The realtime preemption folks, after 20 years of work, have achieved that, at least if you are running on the right hardware. It is an impressive accomplishment
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@thomasmey I do try to at least glance at every comment posted to the site — my punishment for having ever implemented comments in the first place. I just put an answer to your question there.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
@ben I, too, have a Kobo and am *mostly* happy with it. The device (a Libra) works nicely, is reasonably open (you can put apps like KOReader on it, for example), and it works well with Calibre, easily enabling all of the useful things that a suitably extended Calibre can do for you.
My biggest complaint is that, after a few years, the battery is failing, and the device was not made with repairs in mind. The new Libra they offer now claims to have addressed that, making battery repairs feasible.
My biggest complaint is that, after a few years, the battery is failing, and the device was not made with repairs in mind. The new Libra they offer now claims to have addressed that, making battery repairs feasible.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
@whynothugo There are plenty of developers who write documentation, don't get me wrong; some of them work quite hard at it. But that is usually not what their employers are paying them to do.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
I have often complained that, even though thousands of developers are paid to work on the Linux kernel, there is not a single person whose job it is to write documentation for the kernel. The problem is wider than that, though: Alejandro Colomar, who has been maintaining the man pages collection for the last four years, can no longer afford to do it for free.
https://lwn.net/ml/all/4d7tq6a7febsoru3wjium4ekttuw2ouocv6jstdkthnacmzr6x@f2zfbe5hs7h5
https://lwn.net/ml/all/4d7tq6a7febsoru3wjium4ekttuw2ouocv6jstdkthnacmzr6x@f2zfbe5hs7h5
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
@marnanel @brauner The case that brought this to mind is https://lwn.net/ml/all/cd788ccf-0cf1-85d5-1bf8-efc259bd7e11@amd.com/
...more details on LWN shortly...
...more details on LWN shortly...
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
Edited 1 month ago
The more I dig through kernel mailing list discussions, the more I think that we would do well to end the use of "NAK" entirely. It is an exercise of power that is hurtful to read and gets in the way of an actual discussion of how a patch needs to be improved. I have, in my maintainer role, never said "NAK" to a patch and plan to continue that way.
*Edited* since people are asking: NAK (or NACK) comes (I believe) from the ASCII negative-acknowledge character. In this context, is an abrupt way for a maintainer to reject a patch.
*Edited* since people are asking: NAK (or NACK) comes (I believe) from the ASCII negative-acknowledge character. In this context, is an abrupt way for a maintainer to reject a patch.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
@lina If you approach a large city with a plan to install a shiny new utility system, you will quickly find yourself dealing with a whole range of bureaucrats, some of whom will be more helpful than others. The kernel project resembles that large city in a number of ways. I don't say this is a good thing, but it is a thing.
I believe that the Rust for Linux project is succeeding. Yes, it is slow and painful, but the people pushing this work are doing the right things and making progress.
The city council (the maintainers summit) is meeting on September 17. Rust will be on the agenda, and there should be a couple of Rust for Linux developers there. That would be a good time to have a well-thought-out proposal for process changes that you would like to see.
I believe that the Rust for Linux project is succeeding. Yes, it is slow and painful, but the people pushing this work are doing the right things and making progress.
The city council (the maintainers summit) is meeting on September 17. Rust will be on the agenda, and there should be a couple of Rust for Linux developers there. That would be a good time to have a well-thought-out proposal for process changes that you would like to see.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
@lina Extrapolating one developer's words into "this is what kernel maintainers think" is an obvious logical failure and is not the way to advance the Rust cause. The fact that several kernel maintainers spoke out against the "unmerged toy" description makes it clear that it is not a majority opinion. There are a lot of people in the kernel community who support this work.
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@jarkko I hate to say it, but I think you are setting an impossible standard here. Is there any subsystem in the kernel, written in any language, that is so well documented that a developer unfamiliar with the implementation language could understand a patch to it?
The kernel's documentation is ... not great ... and it seems to me that the Rust folks are trying to do a little better.
The kernel's documentation is ... not great ... and it seems to me that the Rust folks are trying to do a little better.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
I'll answer your email soon, honest, but first I have some important meetings to get through...
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
@oleksandr Ouch ... it is sad indeed to see a site like that go down. "the market for written tech journalism is not what it once was – nor will it ever be again" - indeed.
RE: https://activitypub.natalenko.name/@oleksandr/statuses/01J6HPBQ5S4S1W6H5R172A6GMT
RE: https://activitypub.natalenko.name/@oleksandr/statuses/01J6HPBQ5S4S1W6H5R172A6GMT
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