kern/50827: [kernel] [patch] new feature: add sane record locking

[Mark Linimon]

On Wed, Oct 26, 2005 at 09:52:56PM -0600, Stephen Hurd wrote:
> I've already gotten over my bitterness on the point, so if you want to 
> mark it closed or whatever, that's fine... I don't plan on pursuing it 
> any further as feature advocacy isn't a hobby of mine.

As I am emphasizing to people as I try to try to reclassify and/or refile
some of these really old PRs, FreeBSD simply does not have the volunteer
power to get every single suggested change into the system.  There are
currently exactly 4,950 PRs extant and only a few hundred developers,
all but a tiny handful of whom are volunteers.  Even if each of them
were to devote their full time to FreeBSD, there still would not be enough
time to meet this demand.

It's a volunteer project.  Persistence (in some cases dogged persistence)
is the only way changes get incorporated.  It can take many months and
many high-quality PRs being sent in before some existing committer starts
noticing them and wondering if it's time for that person to get a mentor
and a commit bit.

People's expectations are really high on this project, and that's great --
it indicates that they think that we're offering something of value.  But
I think it pays to be realistic about what a relatively small number of
volunteers, faced with incredible demands for features and support across
a bewildering array of hardware, contrasted with their own personal
interests, can accomplish.

mcl