While I do agree that there is some very problematic maintainers that are basically blocking progress just because they are old farts that don’t like change. I do also agree with Linus that immediately running to social media to drum up drama is not the correct solution to getting it fixed.
I am ultimately on the side of the rust maintainers here however there were definitely mistakes on both sides, I am not a fan of the trend over the past few years where anytime something doesn’t go your way you try and drum up as much drama on social media as possible. I am also not a fan of policing how people choose to word things, I don’t think there was anything wrong with the context that cancer was used. They were saying that the code would eventually grow uncontrollably and in a way that was unmanageable which is the literal definition of cancer, a cell that grows in an uncontrolled and unmanageable way.
Regardless of whether or not I agree with them that it would become a problem like that, I don’t see any problem with using the word like that.
There’s also some fault with torvald here, he needs to step up and either say that rust is okay or that it’s not because this wishy-washy game is bullshit and is not helping anybody. He originally accepted it into the kernel but has been letting random maintainers create roadblocks for it he either needs to tell them to back the fuck off and get over it or he needs to get rid of the notion that rust is accepted.
He mentioned turning a technical argument into drama and while I am not anywhere near as knowledgeable at these people I didn’t see much technical debate, I saw a maintainer that clearly said they just hated rust and we’re going to do everything they could to block it and not work with anyone on it. Which doesn’t sound like a very technical based argument to me, there were a couple concerns raised but they appeared to be addressed by multiple people quite thoroughly as there was both misunderstandings and even further potential compromises offered
NACK-ing rust at version 8 of the patchset is kind of a dick move. The 7 others were fine before? Ridiculous that Linus didn’t step in in a definitive way.
While I do agree that there is some very problematic maintainers that are basically blocking progress just because they are old farts that don’t like change. I do also agree with Linus that immediately running to social media to drum up drama is not the correct solution to getting it fixed.
I am ultimately on the side of the rust maintainers here however there were definitely mistakes on both sides, I am not a fan of the trend over the past few years where anytime something doesn’t go your way you try and drum up as much drama on social media as possible. I am also not a fan of policing how people choose to word things, I don’t think there was anything wrong with the context that cancer was used. They were saying that the code would eventually grow uncontrollably and in a way that was unmanageable which is the literal definition of cancer, a cell that grows in an uncontrolled and unmanageable way.
Regardless of whether or not I agree with them that it would become a problem like that, I don’t see any problem with using the word like that.
There’s also some fault with torvald here, he needs to step up and either say that rust is okay or that it’s not because this wishy-washy game is bullshit and is not helping anybody. He originally accepted it into the kernel but has been letting random maintainers create roadblocks for it he either needs to tell them to back the fuck off and get over it or he needs to get rid of the notion that rust is accepted.
He mentioned turning a technical argument into drama and while I am not anywhere near as knowledgeable at these people I didn’t see much technical debate, I saw a maintainer that clearly said they just hated rust and we’re going to do everything they could to block it and not work with anyone on it. Which doesn’t sound like a very technical based argument to me, there were a couple concerns raised but they appeared to be addressed by multiple people quite thoroughly as there was both misunderstandings and even further potential compromises offered
NACK-ing rust at version 8 of the patchset is kind of a dick move. The 7 others were fine before? Ridiculous that Linus didn’t step in in a definitive way.