Re: [PATCH v12 00/18] Enable FSGSBASE instructions

[Don Porter]

Hi Thomas,

On 5/28/20 6:29 AM, Thomas Gleixner wrote:
> > Until recently, we were doing proof-of-concept research, not product
> > development, and there are limited hours in the day.  I also hasten to
> > say that the product of research is an article, the software artifact
> > serves as documentation of the experiment.  In contrast, the product of
> > software development is software.  It takes significant time and effort
> > to convert one to the other.  Upstreaming code is of little scientific
> > interest.  But things have changed for our project; we had no users in
> > 2015 and we are now un-cutting corners that are appropriate for research
> > but inappropriate for production.  For a research artifact with an
> > audience that knew the risks, we shipped a module because it was easier
> > to maintain and install than a kernel patch.
>
> I understand that and with a big fat warning and documentation from
> start I wouldn't have complained so vehemently.

This is a fair point.  We will fix this ASAP, and I will be more careful 
about this going forward.

> Sorry for that innuendo. Now that my anger and general frustration about
> this whole disaster have calmed down, I surely would not write that
> again.

I appreciate you saying so.  Thank you.

I can also understand how frustrating the history was with this feature, 
and we missed an opportunity to help sooner.  There is a lot I still 
don't understand about the process of merging and testing patches in 
this community, but if it makes sense for us to help now, we would be 
willing.

-Don