- @macno yes, we’ll keep it going. #tnparty will not go away
# - @glynmoody Wow. Companies still are in stealth mode? How ‘95 #
- Wow! Cool stuff! Adidas rules! Star Wars Sneakers! http://is.gd/7BpUl (via @oswald) #
- @glynmoody Google talks th etalk, but doesn’t walk the walk. I am not surprised. #
- Google forks, ignores upstream work, ingnoring their own promises. http://is.gd/7BrWe (via @glynmoody) #
- Google forks Linux. How nice. Show em what you think of this at #FOSDEM beer event. I will refuse their free beer. #
- @sandersch Google is not agood citizen of the Linux kernel community. Not only Android. Also their own servers. #
- @krisbuytaert Red Hat believes in Upstream First. We have a good track record wrt Linux Kernel – and that’s what this is about. Kernel. #
- @krisbuytaert http://is.gd/7BuCO can you show me where Red Hat did sth similar? Hint: you cannot #
- @sandersch Apple choes BSD exactly for that reason. IMHO Google tries to pull a BSD on top of the GPL which is wrong. #
- @sandersch those google hackers should work with upstream by default. They don’t. It’s a long history. #
- @sandersch they already *have* the bad press. And having to educate Google sounds crazy. They know. They are samrt. So they have a reason. #
- @krisbuytaert No, *I* was kernel only, you chaged to OS in general #
- @sandersch SFLC cannot force Google to work with upstream. Derivatives are OK. Google however promised to work with upstream. #
- @sandersch http://is.gd/7BwQC tells you more. #
- @ruudderooij Are you trying to say that only work by volunteers is real Open Source? #
- @sandersch I do not ehowever that GregKH works for Novell. Just noting. #
- “Google has said that it wants to become more involved in working with the core kernel team,” – http://is.gd/7By1G #
- @krisbuytaert but we do opensource everything. It just takes time. See directory server, GFS, Metamatrix, … #
- @krisbuytaert but I agree, Red Hat doesn’t opensource everything in seconds. When we buy corps it needs review etc. #
- @ruudderooij getting paid for your ideology is good thing, that’s why I work at Red Hat
# - @ruudderooij those paid developers still keep their ideology. And corps support them in that. the corps have changed, not the devs #
- @ruudderooij it is simple. the open source ideology is now mainstream, so people get paid. That is a success. Makes me happy #
- @sandersch http://is.gd/7BBaF esp slides 6,8, 36. #
- @sandersch “we want to keep GPL out of user-space” slide 36 at http://is.gd/7BBaF – Reason I call it a BSD on top of GPL. #
- @sandersch “Kernel drivers are GPL which exposes any proprietary IP” Slide 51 on why they need userspace HAL. #
- @ruudderooij I never said it was going to be easy But let’s keep on working #
- @carlopiana which BB app supports twitter and identi.ca? #
- My new favourite: http://is.gd/7BJQv #
- @rpcutts http://is.gd/7BNg0 might also be to your liking. #
- @floschi because our government gave our money to those bankers? #
- @zoobab Android is not even using linc, they have their won BSD licensed libc. “Keep GPL out of User-Space” #
- “Google shows no sign of working to get their code upstream anymore.” – http://is.gd/7C2Qg #android #linux #kernel #fail #
- “Microsoft has essentially subsidized SUSE deployments an average tune of US$505,263.16 per customer.” – http://is.gd/7C57t #
- “Google’s kernel group is trying to get to a point where they can work better with the kernel community.” – http://is.gd/7C8Wv #
- @krisbuytaert in Android land apps never terminate. So over time it eats up ressources. #
- @krisbuytaert with a small memory leak someplace, you will end up getting slower and slower, I guess. #
- @zoobab google should rebase android to Solaris #
- To all my twitter followers – I am on identi.ca. I will never see your @ replies on twitter. #
- @x1101 getting chips and beer ready for the flamewar. Go @fabsh, go! #
- On the train from Milane to Roma. #
- So I understand why apple doesn’t like flash on iPod, iPhone and iPay but why do they refuse open standards like ODF,ogg? #
- Arrived at Roma Termini. #
- @fabsh I am quite sure that MP3 made you sick. I use ogg only and I am healthy! Proof! #
- @patdavila patents. Trust me. #
- Just driving past the closseum in rome. Impressive. Each and every time. #
- Italy. I am the only one in the taxi *not* using the phone #
- And another hotel. Same procedure all across the world. #
- Hotel is packed with Nigerians who came to Rome for shopping. And a pope visit. But shopping seems more important #
- @bkuhn we just need to put all patents to zero value (which they are anyway) to kill the trolls. #
- @bkuhn we “just” need to convince Wall Street that patents are worthless ATM. #
- @bkuhn they won’t stop as long as patents have a value. So destroy the value == destroy the incentive. #
- @bkuhn but we move to #zerocoststartups anyway. VCs already have problems placing their money. #
- @bkuhn good startups don’t need VC. That is a real change. #
- @bkuhn patents and VC are so ‘95 #
- @bkuhn I can send you real-world examples (personally done it) #
- @bkuhn I will blog about it soonish. #
- @bkuhn I used that term since 12 months now when keynoting. #
- Roma downtown. Mozzarella, tomatoes, swordfish, wine. #
- Lazyweb. Help. Swedish duo. Must have been love. What is band name?? #
- @mcepl @jeffg thx! Perfect. Saved my discussion! #
- @jeffg I saw them live at Nokia night of the proms in december. You can’t imagine my pain not remembering the name #
- @cmdln mafia gives more time? How nice. We will have to pay is the real message. #
You are currently browsing the daily archive for 2010-02-03.
DISCLAIMER: This post reflects my personal opinion and is in no way related to the company I work for.
LWN tells us what is happening with the android kernel patches in upstream.
The short version: They are gone
As Greg Kroah-Hartman explains:
So, what happened with the Android kernel code that caused it to be deleted? In short, no one cared about the code, so it was removed.
This is a normal process, Microsoft was there before.
So far nothing special. However, as Greg correctly points out:
The Android kernel code is more than just the few weird drivers that were in the drivers/staging/android subdirectory in the kernel. In order to get a working Android system, you need the new lock type they have created, as well as hooks in the core system for their security model.
Now adding new features to the kernel is quite OK. If the changes are sound, stable and help Linux in general, the kernel community will gladly accept such changes upstream. I was sure Google was well aware of this process and according to their promises, I was also sure that they clearly understood that Upstream Is King.
This seems to be wrong. It is up to Google to fix this problem. Google hackers should make sure this situation is solved for the best of upstream ASAP.
If this doesn’t get solved, the kernel running Android is a fork. An incompatible fork, as Greg concludes:
Because of this, Google has now prevented a large chunk of hardware drivers and platform code from ever getting merged into the main kernel tree. Effectively creating a kernel branch that a number of different vendors are now relying on.
Forking the linux kernel is the worst possible outcome. Tell Google what you think of this. Use your contacts inside Google to make sure they understand the magnitude of this problem (however, I am quite sure that the smart Google peeps know this already, which makes this even more strange).
[UPDATE] In october last year we already heard a bit about Google trying to work better with upstream, as described here (thanks to @haypo in the comments):
Linus asked: why aren’t these patches upstream? Is it because Google is embarrassed by them, or is it secret stuff that they don’t want to disclose, or is it a matter of internal process problems? The answer was simply “yes.” Some of this code is ugly stuff which has been carried forward from the 2.4.18 kernel. There are also doubts internally about how much of this stuff will be actually useful to the rest of the world. But, perhaps, maybe about half of this code could be upstreamed eventually.
One can only wonder. They know there is a problem, they promise to change this as supporting forks is expensive and not really sustainable (quelle surprise!) but still, it seems they are not walking the walk.[/UPDATE]
FLASH-MOB Call
In case you are going to the FOSDEM Beer Event this friday, join the flashmob. Google will sponsor free beer – refuse it. Don’t take the free beer. Insist on the integrity of the kernel community.