From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from smtp1.linuxfoundation.org (smtp1.linux-foundation.org [172.17.192.35]) by mail.linuxfoundation.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 8C944127B for ; Thu, 6 Sep 2018 20:52:53 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-lf1-f68.google.com (mail-lf1-f68.google.com [209.85.167.68]) by smtp1.linuxfoundation.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id DB96E2D5 for ; Thu, 6 Sep 2018 20:52:52 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-lf1-f68.google.com with SMTP id v77-v6so10259025lfa.6 for ; Thu, 06 Sep 2018 13:52:52 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: References: <1536263073.6012.3.camel@HansenPartnership.com> <1536263475.6012.5.camel@HansenPartnership.com> From: Olof Johansson Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2018 13:52:50 -0700 Message-ID: To: Linus Torvalds Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Cc: James Bottomley , ksummit Subject: Re: [Ksummit-discuss] [MAINTAINER TOPIC] Succession Planning: Is It time to Throw Linus Under a Bus? List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , On Thu, Sep 6, 2018 at 1:45 PM, Linus Torvalds wrote: > On Thu, Sep 6, 2018 at 1:35 PM Olof Johansson 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