back to article Linus Torvalds asks kernel devs to take a break so he can too

In May, Linux overlord Linus Torvalds warned that his holiday might delay the release of Linux 4.1. That scenario's now come to pass, with the benevolent dictator of the penguin palace posting that he's off on his vacation. “So I'm on vacation, but time doesn't stop for that, and it's Sunday, so time for a hopefully final rc …

  1. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. h4rm0ny
      Joke

      Also, Goddess knows what Poetterring might do whilst his back was turned!

      "What happened to the kernel!?!???"

      "It's part of systemd now."

      1. PNGuinn
        Facepalm

        @ H4rm0ny

        Not sure why he'd ever want to bother about a college student's pet project.

        How long have Linus and his mates been mucking about with the thing anyway? You'd think that they would have got it done and dusted yonks ago.

        I really don't see why he doesn't write his own kernel to go with systemd. He's already done the hard work. Surely he could easily knock it out in a couple of days while Linus is lazing about on the beach - you know, just to make a point. Bonus points for spending his evenings and the rest of the week doing replacements for EMACS and the GIMP to go with it.

        The hard bit would be thinking up a suitable name. Perhaps el Reg readers could help him??

        Potix? Pulsepot? C'mon - help the guy out for once.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: @ H4rm0ny

          Pisspot Linux ?

        2. Captain DaFt

          Re: @ H4rm0ny

          Windows 8.2?

        3. Jamie Jones Silver badge
          Headmaster

          Re: @ H4rm0ny

          @PNGuinn:

          Seriously? That's the best you could do?

          I'm not even a Linux user, but even the most oblivious sucker who lives at 10 Susceptible Street, in the most gullible town in the most deceivable country on planet Moron could have spotted that troll a mile away, even when not wearing his or her glasses.

          1/10 - Must try harder

        4. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: @ H4rm0ny

          @PNGuinn:

          Penix?

          Motto: My kernel is bigger then yours.

          Working on the logo now. Maybe a rocket with two billowing clouds of smoke.

  2. David Austin

    I've never really looked into the Linux "organisational structure", as much as a project like this can have one, but as an outsider, I'm surprised Linus has that much to do with the day to day running that it can't/won't release when he's away.

    It's not a bad thing, but it seems that he's a human Single Point of Failure: If something happens to him, is there the structure in place to seamlessly keep things going?

    1. Bronek Kozicki
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        In the same way that Windows development has kept going forwards without a single hiccup since Ballmer was excreted from the twitching and moist colon of Microsoft.

        (That's an example of meta-sarcasm, readers)

        1. PNGuinn
          Boffin

          "twitching and moist colon of Microsoft."

          Best comment of the year so far! +1!

          Facemask for obvious reasons.

        2. Fatman
          Joke

          RE: Ballmer....

          since Ballmer was excreted from the twitching and moist colon of Microsoft.

          YOU OWE ME A NEW KEYBOARD!!!!

    2. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

      If it bothers you ...

      ... release Linux-4.1-David_Austin.

      There is absolutely nothing stopping you. Other people already maintain their own Linux based kernels. This is usually to support rare hardware or some exotic and intrusive kernel extensions. One day, someone will do a better job of maintaining a main stream kernel than Linus. When that happens, people will switch to submitting patches and syncing to that tree. In the mean time, Linus is doing a sufficiently good job that most penguins are not looking for or working hard to be a replacement.

    3. This post has been deleted by its author

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Pretty sure there is. He has mentioned that in some interview - I think the immediate next level maintainers would take over.

  3. jake Silver badge

    Don't read ANY email, Linus.

    And shut off all of your family's electronic communications devices.

    Be a family, not a so-called "global village" member clone.

    It's only for a week. The planet can handle it if you log out for a week. Or six.

    More importantly, your family will LOVE it. Trust me.

    As a side note, let all the devs know that all the code submitted while you are offline will be deleted when you get back ... the code resubmitted and/or sat on for a week (or six) will be a lot cleaner ;-)

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Easy clickbait article formula

    1: subscribe to LKML but filter it so you only get mails from Linus.. wouldn't want to have to read all of that technical stuff.

    2: Turn a 3 or 4 line email from Linus into a multi-paragraph "article"

    3: Make up a headline that makes it seem like a major happening has happened

    4: ???

    5: profit!

    1. Vince

      Re: Easy clickbait article formula

      Yes, we'll done.

      You did correctly identify the "even rot 15 would be less transparent than this" modus operandi of El Reg.

      If you're looking for genuine insight into the IT industry, or worse, actual news you have indeed stumbled upon the wrong site.

  5. jonfr

    Moving to FreeBSD

    Since I like my systems with compile options I am going to move my desktop to FreeBSD (rather then PC-BSD) once I manage to find money to buy new computer. At least I plan on looking into it moving my desktop to FreeBSD.

    As for Linux, both kernel and user-space environment, it is a mess and it has been a mess for many years now. I fear that might be Linux undoing in the end, when that end might happen I do not know.

    1. Jamie Jones Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: Moving to FreeBSD

      I use only FreeBSD and install/upgrade the whole OS, and the ports through source (for flexibility/customisation,/tuning not as a paranoid zealot [ incidentally, it's funny how so many Linux people bang on about having the source for auditing, but their whole system is made up of pre-compiled binaries!] )

      Source updates can be largely automated, and are a breeze, and the menu'ed options are great

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