[Ksummit-discuss] [MAINTAINER TOPIC] Succession Planning: Is It time to Throw Linus Under a Bus?

[Olof Johansson]

On Thu, Sep 6, 2018 at 1:45 PM, Linus Torvalds
<torvalds at linux-foundation.org> wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 6, 2018 at 1:35 PM Olof Johansson <olof at lixom.net> wrote:
>>
>> I'd argue that having a group would be substantially more robust,
>> especially since the pool of people are likely to come from industry
>> and not just LF. We're all pretty good at leaving company politics and
>> influence out of our community work, but it's still desirable to have
>> a bit of balance in the higher maintainer roles.
>
> I think the groups mostly have worked well, but I don't believe in
> that "balance" notion at all.
>
> Because I think *the* most important issue would be that the group
> maintainers trust each other, not that they come from different areas
> in industry.
>
> Of course, outside people would have to trust that group too, but
> trust within the group is I think the most important part by far.

Yeah, I was mostly thinking of outside optics than intra-group dynamics.

For arm-soc it was something that was explicitly considered, Linaro
was just then spinning up and it was important to not give the
impression that companies had to join Linaro to get attention and
equal treatment from the maintainers (and, of course, couldn't apply
pressure to maintainers through membership).

And on a day to day basis it works well. We rarely hit cases where we
send conflicting or contradicting feedback or requests, and if we do,
the later-arriving party either yields or we hash it out quickly. It's
mostly been the case of the former. And yes, trust is obviously key
within the group, no matter background/employment/representation.


-Olof