Linux and Main: The Linux Kernel as a Periodical Publication

“…There has been a greater than usual amount of traffic on
the Linux kernel mailing list lately having to do with how Linus
Torvalds chooses what to include in the official kernel.org kernel.
In this post, Rob Landley responded to a suggestion that the kernel
is like the Washington Monument, owned by the people, not by those
who maintain it. It’s more like a publication, and Linus more like
an editor, he explains.

“You pay taxes to support the Washington Monument. When’s the
last time you paid a tax to Linus?

“He’s the editor of a periodical publication. A cross between an
academic technical journal which people contribute to for
professional reasons, and a hobbyist fanzine that people contribute
to ’cause it’s cool. This is not a new thing, there are real-world
precedents for this sort of relationship going back hundreds of
years, to the invention of the printing press…”

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