Is Linux Too Much for One Mere Mortal to Handle?

[Kevin Hunter]

At 1:09pm -0600 Tue, 27 Jul 2010, Chris Rees wrote:
> It's just that Linux is  unique among the major players in
> having a Dictator.

But it only has a dictator because Linus does a damn good job.  Meaning 
that when (not if) he screws up, then someone let's him know (quietly or 
otherwise) and he fixes it.  If he doesn't fix it, then it's up to the 
community to stop relying solely on him.  The ability for multiple 
people to commit to a single Git instance is very possible.  The Linux 
code commit process (i.e. only through Linus) is very arbitrary, not a 
limitation of DVCS.  So, when Linus either retires or screws up and does 
not fix it, guess what will happen?  Nothing prevents anyone from taking 
up the staff on they're own.

He may be a dictator, but he's effectively an elected one.  Welcome to 
open source.  He *can't* be a bad dictator for such a large project.  If 
Linux were a smaller project, bad leadership could kill it; but Linux is 
simply too high profile and has too many monetarily invested parties. 
If Linus starts to get overwhelmed or stops doing "right", you can rest 
assured that he'll either ask for help, or "help" will form around him.

Kevin