From: Linus Torvalds (torvalds@transmeta.com)
Date: Thu Oct 31 2002 - 12:25:21 EST


[ Ok, this is a really serious email. If you don't get it, don't bother
  emailing me. Instead, think about it for an hour, and if you still don't
  get it, ask somebody you know to explain it to you. ]

On Thu, 31 Oct 2002, Matt D. Robinson wrote:
>
> Sure, but why should they have to? What technical reason is there
> for not including it, Linus?

There are many:

 - bloat kills:

        My job is saying "NO!"

        In other words: the question is never EVER "Why shouldn't it be
        accepted?", but it is always "Why do we really not want to live
        without this?"

 - included features kill off (potentially better) projects.

        There's a big "inertia" to features. It's often better to keep
        features _off_ the standard kernel if they may end up being
        further developed in totally new directions.

        In particular when it comes to this project, I'm told about
        "netdump", which doesn't try to dump to a disk, but over the net.
        And quite frankly, my immediate reaction is to say "Hell, I
        _never_ want the dump touching my disk, but over the network
        sounds like a great idea".

To me this says "LKCD is stupid". Which means that I'm not going to apply
it, and I'm going to need some real reason to do so - ie being proven
wrong in the field.

(And don't get me wrong - I don't mind getting proven wrong. I change my
opinions the way some people change underwear. And I think that's ok).

> I completely don't understand your reasoning here.

Tough. That's YOUR problem.

                Linus

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From: Linus Torvalds (torvalds@transmeta.com)
Date: Thu Oct 31 2002 - 12:54:54 EST


On Thu, 31 Oct 2002, Matt D. Robinson wrote:
>
> This isn't bloat. If you want, it can be built as a module, and
> not as part of your kernel. How can that be bloat?

I don't care one _whit_ about the size of the binary. I don't maintain
binaries, adn the binary can be gigabytes for all I care.

The only thing I care about is source code. So the "build it as a module
and it is not bloat" argument is a total nonsense thing as far as I'm
concerned.

Anyway, new code is always bloat to me, unless I see people using them.

Guys, why do you even bother trying to convince me? If you are right, you
will be able to convince other people, and that's the whole point of open
source.

Being "vendor-driven" is _not_ a bad thing. It only means that _I_ am not
personally convinced. I'm only one person.

                Linus

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