Re: [9fans] linux stats in last year from linuxcon

[Patrick Kelly <kameo76890@gmail.com>]

On Sep 21, 2009, at 1:02 PM, tlaronde@polynum.com wrote:

> On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 09:22:56AM -0700, ron minnich wrote:
>> 2.7M lines last year
>> 10K lines added a day.
>> 5K lines deleted per day.
>>
>> I keep thinking this can't be sustained. What happens next?
>
> Are there stats indicating where the lines are added? If this is new
> hardware (drivers), the accumulation is not a problem---if the API
> stays
> stable; if one needs to rework all the drivers because the API does
> not
> stabilized...
>
> The only time I had to dive in the Linux kernel code, I was
> disappointed
> by the "entropy" of the style and ended grep'ing or awk'ing all around
> to extract a (partial) list of PCI identifiers and drivers. (This was
> long ago now. 2002 ?)
>
> I wonder if a software project will some day be an example of a black
> hole: collapsing from its own size, the work needed to just make it
> work
> being greater than the resources available and the gain to have it
> work; and the inability to understand the whole (too much, too long)
> resulting in the impossibility to evolve...

I wouldn't doubt it, it's a monolithic kernel, It's bound to get too
large, At one of Googles recent conferences one the the Linux guys
said along the lines of, If your codes outside of the kernel, get it
in there. So... building everything into the kernel. Where have I
heard that was a terrible thing to do... oh yes, everywhere.

A software black-hole certainly seems to be possible. I can't help but
question, how good a Monolithic kernel is if you can't maintain it any
longer.
> --
> Thierry Laronde (Alceste) <tlaronde +AT+ polynum +dot+ com>
>                 http://www.kergis.com/
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>