4 ms·

I think kernel development is a lot slower and more incremental than it used to be, which is probably a good thing. However, back in the "wild west" days we ha

by elihu 10y ago

I think kernel development is a lot slower and more incremental than it used to be, which is probably a good thing. However, back in the "wild west" days we had some very good books that explained in detail how the kernel works. Now, if someone wants to get started in kernel development, I wouldn't even know what book to recommend; all the good ones I know of haven't been updated in a decade. I think this is perhaps an overlooked aspect of Linux's success; at a critical time, they had LWN and good documentation that made it easy for new developers to understand what's going on and start contributing. I don't know any other open source project that is as accessible to new developers as the kernel was in the early 2000's.

ajdlinux 10y ago
As someone who's only come into the kernel very recently, I have found the lack of up-to-date documentation to be quite frustrating. I'm very glad to see Jon Corbet step up to be the kernel documentation maintainer and make some concrete steps to improve the usability of our docs, but it's annoying to see few new books or similarly consolidated resources for new kernel developers. The main reason I'm surviving in the kernel is that I'm employed on a team with many experienced kernel developers - I don't think I would have gotten into the kernel as a volunteer. I think in the last few years many open source communities have become a lot better than the kernel in terms of having good starting points for beginners. In the last 5 years I think many projects have started to focus on developing and improving community process, which is good.