Linux Infighting: Should We Worry?

A fight has broken out in the Linux camp, and of course all eyes are upon it to gauge what effect it will have on the future of our favorite operating system. The argument stems from a disagreement over the use of the proprietary BitKeeper system and some comments Linus Torvalds made about Samba developer Andrew Tridgell (details on The Register and NewsForge).

So should we worry? I don’t think so.

First of all, as Joe Barr points out, a new kernel release was put out last night, is using Linus’s new distribution system (”git”), and has a fairly lengthy changelog. In otherwords, work continues.

Second, spats like this are inevitable. There have been fights over binary modules, turned heads over Linus switching to PPC on his desktop, and probably a lot more extending back well before I ever heard the word Linux. Ever try doing anything by committee (or community, for that matter), no matter how insignificant? It’s far from easy, as there are almost as many opinions as there are people involved. Someone needs to take charge.

Which leads to my third point, Linus takes charge. We can argue over the way he handles things (and people), but I’m sure he knows he can’t please everyone. There’s also a celebrity factor here; he may say something in the heat of the moment, and everyone’s going to run to press with it, quite possibly blowing it out of proportion. The same goes for people on the other side, like Bruce Perens and Tridgell in this case.

It’ll be a bummer if this costs the kernel some talented developers, but it’s better than having the entire thing fragment and explode.

Finally, there’s too much support behind Linux. On the far remote chance Linux tries to take his toys and go home, or he “fires” the development list, the source is all there. Linus owns the Linux trademark, but my understanding is the code would still be available. Vendors like IBM and Novell/SuSE have too much invested in Linux to just shrug their shoulders and let it die. And that doesn’t even include the community behind Linux, a good example of which is the sheer number of distributions available.

So if you’re worried, don’t be. If the US Congress can keep from imploding beneath the weight of its own politics, the Linux kernel should have no problem either. And if the improbable does happen, it won’t be the end of the world; just duck the flying pigs and download FreeBSD.