[Arm-netbook] getting allwinner SoC support upstream (was Re: Uploading linux (3.9.4-1))

[Olof Johansson]

On Thu, Jun 6, 2013 at 8:13 AM, jonsmirl at gmail.com <jonsmirl at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 5, 2013 at 7:54 PM, luke.leighton <luke.leighton at gmail.com> wrote:
>>  augh.  ok.  solutions.  what are the solutions here?
>
> Luke if you really want to fix this a good solution is to have
> Allwinner join Linaro and provide an engineer to the Linaro effort.
> That engineer will get educated on the right way to do kernel
> development and he can pass that knowledge back to Allwinner each day
> as he learns it.

There's no need for anybody to join Linaro to contribute upstream.
That's a crazy notion.

Listen, Allwinner isn't working in a vacuum, believe it or not. I've
talked to them, so has Arnd and other people working on ARM, including
Maxime Ripard, who's been reimplementing upstream support for their
platform. Everybody is interested in the right things happening, it's
just a matter of figuring out how to do it. The right people are
already talking.

> Allwinner has expressed interest in the past in joining Linaro but the
> price was too high. I believe there are cheaper options now for
> joining. The benefits Allwinner receives from joining will far exceed
> the cost of joining. The net result will likely be a reduction in the
> amount they need to spend on in-house development since they will
> learn how to better leverage other developer's work.

Uh, you're listing the benefits of doing upstream work, not of joining Linaro.


-Olof