Linux 4.19-rc4 Released As Linus Temporarily Steps Away From Kernel Maintainership

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux 4.19-rc4 Released As Linus Temporarily Steps Away From Kernel Maintainership

Linux 4.19-rc4 is out today as the very latest weekly development test kernel for Linux 4.19. It's another fairly routine kernel update at this stage, but more shocking is that Linus Torvalds will be taking a temporary leave from kernel maintainership and Greg Kroah-Hartman will take over the rest of the Linux 4.19 cycle...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-4.19-rc4-Released

[HenryM]

Linus is afraid of 4.20.

[linner]

It's pretty obvious he has been wanting to step away for a while. That's why he told them to have the kernel summit without him. That was a huge hint that nobody seemed to get.

[shmerl]

Did anyone experience the bug with not working tty (virtual consoles) with 4.19-rc3 and amdgpu?

[timofonic]

I always loved Linus' rants and harsh style, so much politically incorrect and anticorporative. I'll miss them :'(

[lucasbekker]

We owe Linus a great deal, and as such, I hold him in high regard. But for him to only recently realize that his behavior was, at times, far from professional, is rather poor. Sad business altogether...

[karolherbst]

We owe Linus a great deal, and as such, I hold him in high regard. But for him to only recently realize that his behavior was, at times, far from professional, is rather poor. Sad business altogether...

well, how to put it, there are (especially in technical areas) some people who lack advanced social skills or empathy, and he seemed to just realize that in the past few weeks. Better than not realizing that at all (where people like that actually exist as well0

[DanL]

I think he was kidnapped while traveling and his account was hacked. Who is this person and what has s/he done with Linus?

[campbell]

Who is this person and what has s/he done with Linus?

Greg Kroah-Hartman, in the library, with a metal pipe

[bridgman]

I think he was kidnapped while traveling and his account was hacked.

Yeah, that was my first thought as well.

Seriously, I hope this isn't just the PC movement catching Linus at a vulnerable time and forcing him to trade off effectiveness for diplomacy. You hire diplomats for diplomacy; you don't send your generals to "how to be nice" school and ask them to be diplomats.

I guess it depends on who has been giving the private feedback that led to this.

If the top level maintainers are unhappy (or are telling him that they can't attract new top-level maintainers) then Linus probably does need to make some changes and this is a pretty good time...

... but if the problem is primarily that his messages to maintainers are offending other people then it might be better to just partition the communication a bit, ie Linus continues being Linus when dealing with maintainers but a "kinder, gentler" message goes out to the rest of the community.