As most people seem to realize, I'm not exactly a fan of how OSDL has interacted with, and pretended to represent, the Linux kernel community over the years. I feel that OSDL represents a very good opportunity for the Linux kernel community, and am frustrated to see that opportunity slip away (if things don't change, odds are OSDL will just slide into oblivion, but that's just my personal opinion...)

Well, instead of just bitching about it among ourselves, or in public every year at the Kernel Summit, a number of the Linux kernel developers have gotten together to try to actually get things to change.

With that in mind, there was a meeting a few weeks ago with OSDL's management team (as mentioned by Pat) and a few members of this group of developers. A lot of good items came out of that meeting, and hopefully the proper OSDL people will follow through on them (otherwise we are just back to where we have been for the past five years...)

So, what next? Well, one of the kernel developers has put together a very well written position paper about what we feel the issues are, and a number of good potential changes that could be made to help address this. If you are a kernel developer, have concerns about OSDL, and might be interested in signing on to this document, please let me know.

Also, we hope to get a chance to present this paper and discuss the topics in it at the next OSDL board meeting. If any OSDL member companies that have an influence on the board want to discuss this ahead of time, also, please feel free to contact me.

I'll follow up here if anything comes of this, hopefully OSDL doesn't just ignore us like they have done in the past, as that would not be good for anyone...

posted Thu, 15 Sep 2005 in [/linux]