Before voting this down, remember the Xfree86 -> Xorg fork. It fixed a lot. Also, its a simple investigation. If enough kernel developers agree, it will turn out to be similar to the Xorg fork, where everything went smoothly, because Xfree fell apart 2 years later.
Currently, the linux kernel is controlled by a very select group of developers. If Linus and Morton says no, regardless of what others think, you have no chance of getting your code added to the mainline. And if you don't make friends with them.
We should look at what I believe is happening (correct me if I'm wrong):
- LKML is a mess, its all arguing developers. If you don't suck up first 3 years in IRC, avoid LKML. New developers aren't really invited
- Linus and Morton control the main kernel, so its still not free. 99% of developers may call it a good patch, but they still can say no. We should open it up to a committee as to what new features should go in, and be more open.
- Fact is they don't care about new technologies, Linus said officially he wants to keep linux normal, and not introduce any because thats what people want. Xorg proves this kind of thinking is incorrect
- Linus does not care about a stable ABI/API for modules at all. While his in charge, expect to have to recompile every installed kernel module every kernel upgrade. I dare someone here to tell me that having to reinstall drivers every minor kernel upgrade is good for endusers. Sure they have to break occasionally, but its any minor upgrade they break at the moment. Even Wireless drivers from Windows XP SP0 still work on SP2, without a recompile.
For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, I have posted some links to the comments, so people have a better understanding. I see the current situation as the starting of a repeat of the troubles of Xorg.
And I don't want to hear any of that "oh this will destroy linux" crap. The migration from Xfree86 to Xorg did little to destroy X11, and we are all much better off now. Ubuntu tries to hide a lot of the kernels flaws, but if we collaborate with developers and other distro's to form a bigger kernel committee, we will be more free then ever, whilst having a better kernel.
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