Today’s Linux schisms are a blessing in disguise

We’ve also seen a number of Linux kernel brouhahas, with Linus Torvalds telling several individuals and companies to — ahem — screw themselves. And there have been relatively recent changes in the Linux kernel release scheme, leading to stable kernels in the 2.6, 3.4, and 3.8 trees — a situation that never would have occurred back in the days when 2.6 was released. To some, all these issues might seem to indicate big problems within the Linux community, which has been closely knit since inception, raging the open source war against commercial aggressors. The tables, it might seem, have turned.