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This sounds like a lot of impressive work. I wonder if there would be any benefit to the Linux kernel adopting more of agile release cycle. This waterfall like

This sounds like a lot of impressive work. I wonder if there would be any benefit to the Linux kernel adopting more of agile release cycle. This waterfall like release surely has to increase the risk surface. Perhaps the mindset of web software and operating system kernels don’t overlap enough for this to be reasonable?

todd3834 7y ago
Not sure why getting downvoted. Is this an ignorant question? Or maybe just not fans of the word agile? Oh well. Guess I’ll just have to ask someone who contributes the the kernel in person the next time I meet one.
- wtallis 7y ago
  It's a pretty ignorant question; it could also be taken as flamebait trying to start up an agile vs waterfall argument. New stable kernel branches are released every 2-3 months after weekly release candidates, with bugfix releases in between new stable branches and a new LTS branch every year or so. If you want anything "more agile" than that for OS kernel development, then you're probably prioritizing agile dogma over the realities of trying to not break the most fundamental component of the operating system.
  - pmlnr 7y ago
    Agile is juatvas much about small features as time. Imo this kernel comes with too many changes; smaller steps miggt be preferable.
    - wtallis 7y ago
      It sounds like you're just not accustomed to paying attention to a project with such broad scope. Most of these changes have fairly narrow impact on just a single driver or subsystem. It would be silly to say "we're going to postpone release of this new GPU driver because we have too many new network drivers in this release", because there's no reason to expect such a policy to actually improve the quality of kernel releases, and it would obviously be detrimental to the pace of feature additions. Actual far-reaching systemic changes are a pretty small portion of this and most other stable kernel releases.
    - collyw 7y ago
      No one actually agrees what Agile is.
phh 7y ago
Linux development is hardly waterfall development. Take io_uring. It started with a very small subset of syscalls and they are now adding new ones at every release at every stage. Take bpf. It was meant for networking, and it is slowly transforming into a brain new kind of OS. Even before a feature lands in mainlinel, we're far from waterfall. Usually a developer will issue a RFC thread implementing a feature as quick and dirty, but as a basis to discuss, and to have people start to test and tinker with it to see what can be done with it.

todd3834 7y ago

Not sure why getting downvoted. Is this an ignorant question? Or maybe just not fans of the word agile? Oh well. Guess I’ll just have to ask someone who contributes the the kernel in person the next time I meet one.

wtallis 7y ago
It's a pretty ignorant question; it could also be taken as flamebait trying to start up an agile vs waterfall argument. New stable kernel branches are released every 2-3 months after weekly release candidates, with bugfix releases in between new stable branches and a new LTS branch every year or so. If you want anything "more agile" than that for OS kernel development, then you're probably prioritizing agile dogma over the realities of trying to not break the most fundamental component of the operating system.
- pmlnr 7y ago
  Agile is juatvas much about small features as time. Imo this kernel comes with too many changes; smaller steps miggt be preferable.
  - wtallis 7y ago
    It sounds like you're just not accustomed to paying attention to a project with such broad scope. Most of these changes have fairly narrow impact on just a single driver or subsystem. It would be silly to say "we're going to postpone release of this new GPU driver because we have too many new network drivers in this release", because there's no reason to expect such a policy to actually improve the quality of kernel releases, and it would obviously be detrimental to the pace of feature additions. Actual far-reaching systemic changes are a pretty small portion of this and most other stable kernel releases.
  - collyw 7y ago
    No one actually agrees what Agile is.

phh 7y ago

Linux development is hardly waterfall development. Take io_uring. It started with a very small subset of syscalls and they are now adding new ones at every release at every stage. Take bpf. It was meant for networking, and it is slowly transforming into a brain new kind of OS. Even before a feature lands in mainlinel, we're far from waterfall. Usually a developer will issue a RFC thread implementing a feature as quick and dirty, but as a basis to discuss, and to have people start to test and tinker with it to see what can be done with it.