Linux is about to lose a feature [Bcachefs (ofc)]– over a personality clash
comment: A large and unfortunate mistake in the kernel development management process is underway
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Man, fuck this article. It's heavily implying the filesystem was dropped just because Linus and co dislike the creator, or because he's said something that they disagree with and they want to shut him down in retaliation.
That is not the case. This guy has routinely and flagrantly not followed the established rules towards kernel development, doing things like pushing big feature updates, filled with bugs, just before the release of a new kernel, when only bug fixes are being accepted.
When he's respectfully told he can't do things like that, he gets angry and says he's better than others, his work is more important, he should be an exception to the rules.
You can't run a project that way, it'd be chaos. Linus was right to kick him. He has been told if he starts complying with the rules then he can start submitting again.
The only children in this story are the BcacheFS dev, and this article author.
It's not quite as one sided as you put it, either. The most recent last minute feature was pushed for rc3, and wasn't big filled. It was also a feature that enhanced stability, which is the reason Kent submitted it there. I'm not saying he's right, but it's important context here. And he's far from the only one who has done this. Someone recently added new hardware support in rc7.
Also, he has improved somewhat. Arguably not as much as he should, but things aren't as bad as they originally were.
And as to the attitude - he's in good company, honestly. Especially in regard to Linus, them judging Kent is like a group of lepers judging a beauty contest. That's the point this article makes very well.
None of this excuses his behaviour, but it is important to put it into context.
When Linus gets pissy, it's to defend the standards and practices that he and the rest of the kernel community have set to advance the project. Yah, he's direct and probably more unfiltered than he often should be. But it's resulted in a product that's given a spectacularly successful platform for FOSS that would have never existed if the companies that controlled everything in the 90s had their way. I guarantee that for all the feelings that he's hurt over the years, it's isn't a patch on the suffering that Microsoft and IBM have laid on their employees. And people still clamor to contribute to the kernel.
Seems like 99% of the contributors manage to work within that framework and get stuff done, even with the threat of being chewed out for submitting bad code at the wrong time hangs over their heads. Kent apparently can't manage that so maybe he should fade into the background and let someone else interact with the community for him.
I mean, we could say the same thing about Kent - when he's getting pissy, it's about ensuring the filesystem is bulletproof and no one loses data.
Thing is, we're not talking about getting pissy. We're talking about getting downright insulting and borderline abusive. Linus got suspended from his own goddamn Kernel for his behavior. Let that sink in for a moment.
And I honestly believe that's where part of the problem comes from. Kent looks up to Linus in a way, and sees himself as entitled to mimicking Linus's bad behavior, which turns into a clusterfuck. Linux is still a good kernel despite Linus's behavior, and bcachefs seems to be pretty good from a technical standpoint despite Kent's behavior (even the kernel maintainers Kent pissed off admit it). They both shouldn't be behaving that way, period. But both are very talented from a technical standpoint, which makes policing their behavior that much harder.
Ideally, yes, someone else would take over communication with Linus, but my hope isn't particularly high at the moment. I wish Kent would calm down (further) and play by the rules more (even though he's far from the only one who has broken those rules), and I wish Linus would learn to take it as much as he dishes it out.
And that makes it such a shame: bcachefs would be great to have in the kernel from a technical standpoint. It's the personal conflicts that are really messing things up at the moment.
Linus stepped away on his own, he wasn't "suspended", or at least that's the public story. For the most part, he's been pretty calm since.