[gourlaysama]

See the Linux documentation's "How the development process works" [0].

The way a changeset goes from a developer's machine to the root is reasonably similar (it usually gets pulled through a number a intermediate trees, from a development tree to a sub-subsystem tree to a major subsystem tree to Linus's tree), riding the train from the bottom to the top, with an additional time constraint on it (the merge window being open).

The kernel also has a "next" tree that is a snapshot of what the kernel would look like with incoming changes merged right now, surfacing early the exact long-distance coordination issues described in the article. Plus, of course, everything is in the open, so maintainers of different subsystem can then coordinate directly on things that impact both sides, even if the required patches will if possible make their way up separately.

[0]: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/2.Process.htm...