Linus Torvalds, about AI, said that if people don’t like it they can fork it. Does anyone know any linux kernel forks that attempt this? Getting rid of “tainted” commits, even if that would mean going back in time a few years?

I don’t want to discuss the use of AI in the kernel. I am just curious and couldn’t really find any forks (only the linus quote pops up on search engines).

  • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org
    6·
    23 hours ago

    You could do the fork yourself (it is two or three git commands), but I am sorry you most probably won’t find competent people to work on it for free and enough keep it both current and secure, as this is a doomed endeavour. I guess it would be easier to hire a tripulation for a leaking ocean liner which is doomed to sink on its first journey.

    And it becomed even more of a challenge if you want to use a web browser, as these things evolve not only in terms of many security fixes, but also in terms of features, and a browser version that is ten years old is not useful today for things like banking or online shopping, and most news sites won’t even display.

    And I say that as somebody using a pretty conservative and minimalist stack.

    And if you say you don’t need security - why not install a kernel from 2021 with a browser of the same age, and disconnect it from the Internet? If it is connected, it most likely needs security.

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      1·
      21 hours ago

      Why so defeatist? I like Linus too, but it’s not like he can do things literally nobody else can. The space is chock full of extremely talented software engineers, many of which agree with OP regarding AI.

      Why capitulate immediately like this?

      • HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org
        2·
        14 hours ago

        For 2011, the value of the Linux kernel, defined as redevelopment costs by paid developers, was estimated at 2.2 Billion Euros. It has gotten much larger since.

        And much of the value is done by highly specialized experts. The type of people which write a draft of something like git in a few weekends.

        And I do not know if you have ever worked at a large software project, but in order to work on it, you need to understand it somwhat, and in order to understand it, you have to do a noticeable fraction of the work of initial development.

        To sum up: If you do not have hundreds of million Euros, or the equivalent in free time of extremely qualified volunteers, you do not have the resources to fork and maintain the kernel.

        If you are serious with your suggestion, I’d start with a smaller kernel, which covers minimal requirements.

        I am also not sure whether you are serious or trolling. Because some people use this difficult topic for trolling and sowing polarization. We see that in some discussions around Linux and AI/LLMs.