Messages in this thread | | | From | Daniel Phillips <> | Subject | Re: The direction linux is taking | Date | Wed, 2 Jan 2002 11:14:28 +0100 |
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On December 31, 2001 10:33 pm, Rob Landley wrote: > On Monday 31 December 2001 03:45 am, Daniel Phillips wrote: > > On December 29, 2001 11:04 pm, Larry McVoy wrote: > > > On Sat, Dec 29, 2001 at 04:03:34PM -0500, Benjamin LaHaise wrote: > > > > On Sat, Dec 29, 2001 at 11:37:49AM -0800, Larry McVoy wrote: > > > > > If you have N people trying to patch the same file, you'll require N > > > > > releases and some poor shlep is going to have to resubmit their patch > > > > > N-1 times before it gets in. > > > > > > > > Wrong. Most patches are independant, and even touch different > > > > functions. > > > > > > Really? And the data which shows this absolute statement to be true is > > > where? I'm happy to believe data, but there is no data here. > > > > Ben's right. Most patches are independant because the work divides itself > > up that way, because people talk about this stuff (on IRC) and cooperate, > > and because the tree structure evolves to support the natural divisions ;) > > In a fan club, saying "andrea's the MM guy, talk to him" is only natural. > It's a meritocracy, he's alpha geek on call in that area right now. > > In a fortune 500 bureaucracy, people are largely supposed to be > interchangeable cogs. People's worth is measured in dollars, and somebody > worth $70k a year should be swappable with somebody else worth $70k/year. > (It's a bit more complex than that, there's certifications and experience, > but somebody with a BA and 2 years experience working on inflatable widgets > should be exchangeable with somebody else with a BA and 2 years experience > working on inflatable widgets. If not, they'll "get up to speed", it's just > a question of acquiring experience...) > > So having a single point of failure in the development process... It's > unthinkable. What if that guy decides to retire? What if he gets hit by a > bus. What if the competition hires him away? What if he DEMANDS MORE MONEY? > (It's all about money in a corporation. It's all numbers. The bottom line. > So if the whole project depends on one guy, logically he'll ask for as much > salary as the project's worth. That's a lot of how management thinks.) > > So if you DO have someone breaking down the project into subsections, it's > unlikely to be a developer, it would be a manager assigning areas of > responsibility. And shuffling them around from time to time so nobody gets > the idea they can't be replaced. But it's easiest just to scatter > tasks over the group and keep things mixed up all the time... > > Fan clubs are all individuals. Bureaucracies try to eliminate the > individual: the automated assembly line with no humans in it is the > bureaucratic ideal... > > Totally different paradigm.
Yes, that's all +5 insightful, except... what makes you think any one of the Linux core hackers is irreplaceable? I know you didn't say that, but you did say 'single point of failure', and it amounts to the same thing.
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