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by phendrenad2 995 days ago
I don't know if you've been in the open-source space for very long, because this is not how it works. It's pretty standard to work very hard to give credit (and not some silly "reporter" credit) to the first person to show up with a working patch for an issue (as long as they are willing to work with the maintainers and make requested changes), because it builds goodwill in the community and encourages contributions. Of course, the kernel maintainers are free to break that social compact, but it's still "robbing" someone of what social norms lead one to expect. And this "robbery" isn't a victimless act, either. Finding a high-complexity (and it was, don't confuse yourself) issue and solving it is a good undertaking that shows that you're a good developer, and also brings some spotlight to the company you represent, which can be good for recruiting and developer relations.

Source: I have asked this question on HN before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31225599
1 comments
jacquesm 995 days ago
But: it wasn't a working patch, it was mailed to a security mailing list alerting, and it wasn't properly signed off as required for inclusion. Those things alone make the expectations for credit strange. LKML has its own set of very specific rules around this stuff.
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phendrenad2 995 days ago
Of course, this all makes perfect sense if you live inside the LKML bureaucracy. From the outside it just seems bonkers. This is why it's important to reconsider policies that don't make sense.
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jacquesm 995 days ago
Agreed, but OP made himself part of that bureaucracy entirely voluntarily. It's as if I show up to a casino and start playing without familiarizing myself with the rules and the environment first. Note that the kernel maintainers are in general getting a lot of crap for doing a very large amount of work and that this sort of post that attacks a particular maintainer by name is really damaging, far more so than if the OP had never submitted their patch in the first place.
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phendrenad2 994 days ago
Absolutely agree. But remember that this affects all of us, because "with many eyes all bugs are shallow" only works if lots of people show up and contribute.
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