Here are some key take-aways from the Mark Gross interview:
- Open source projects are sometimes required to carry closed source proprietary code, usually in the form of drivers. This is unpopular, and the open-source community pushes pretty hard for open-source drivers.
- By definition, all kernel code is written by “the community”. It’s also mostly written by corporations. This is not a contradiction.
- Corporate development is critical to the success of open source.
- All code is submitted to the mailing list for approval. Comments are initially about cosmetic issues. Then, they become more substantive.
- Commenting on code is a way to build a reputation. Reputation is important in becoming a maintainer, getting your code added the kernel, and being taken seriously among the community.
- Sometime, there are turf/political battles over sub-systems. Maintainers have broad discretion for what code is approved.
- The mechanisms for secure code are 1) many eyeballs, and 2) quick reaction to vulnerabilities.
- A contributor generally provides bug fixes for the latest version. Back-porting is often not the responsibility of the code author.
- Getting code included in the kernel is a technical process and a political process.
- Some people volunteer to work on the code as a career path, hoping to get hired or sponsored.
