[ Thanks to Nobody for this link.
]
“Managing a free software project of any size is like wrestling
an octopus. No matter how strong or smart you are, there’s always
something else waiting to hit you in the head. Besides coding, you
must organize volunteers, delegate tasks, and motivate people to
move in new directions. It’s no wonder little maintenance issues
fall through the cracks. Source files that go untouched for long
periods of time succumb to bitrot, and a thousand small changes
here and there evolve parts of the code faster than others.”
“The Linux kernel is no exception. A huge project involving a
wide range of hardware and a rapid development pace, the kernel has
several little jobs that can fall under the radar. Finding and
fixing these issues takes time and knowledge — a rare combination.
Merging patches from dozens to hundreds of far-flung programmers
winnows out plenty of errors, and maintainers occasionally post
task lists before a major release. That doesn’t mean things
automatically get done. Like writing and running tests, updating
documentation or old code after a small change can be tedious and
thankless.”