> Can you make a compelling argument for why that is? Is it that you believe Linus has your personal well being in mind or you are unfamiliar with decentralised "processes"?

Yes, the project is successful, as successful as an open source project can be. It seems to work fine since 1992.

Why would you bring up my personal well being ? Does a decentralised process (whatever that means actually, it's not defined at all yet) take my personal well being in to consideration???

> unchecked power

Linus may have the final say on a lot of things, particularly regarding policy surrounding contributions, but "unchecked" isn't so much an overstatement so much as a joke. Vast numbers of contributors, security auditors, and generally-interested hackers keep close eyes on the Linux kernel.

You should explain what you mean by decentralization. I think you are mixing concepts here and don't bring much to the discussion. What does "Decentralization of open source" means ? It seems you are saying that having multiple contributors and auditors keeps linux safe, I wouldn't really call this "decentralization", you can have a centralized process that is audited by many persons.

I've tried to explain but the comment was blocked because I was replying too quickly.

Decentralisation has three dimensions: Political, Logical and Architectural. In the case of Linux, I argue that the decentralised nature of open-source software development is what guarantees its safety and usefulness and not the individual merits of any one participant (person or company).

I think I'm not saying anything contentious when I say that Linus' employer has no special treatment in terms of linux development roadmap, and that most contributions are voluntary and no one needs to ask permission to download the code and fork the project and this is logical and political decentralisation.

Here's an article by Vitalik from Ethereum Foundation that I always recommend to those interested in understanding decentralisation: https://medium.com/@VitalikButerin/the-meaning-of-decentrali...

I believe this quote is appropriate given that some users seem to be unaware of how the kernel development process is decentralised:

"Instead of a roadmap, there are technical guidelines. Instead of a central resource allocation, there are persons an companies who all have a stake in the further development of the Linux kernel, quite independently from one another: People like Linus Torvalds and I don’t plan the kernel evolution. We don’t sit there and think up the roadmap for the next two years, then assign resources to the various new features. That's because we don’t have any resources. The resources are all owned by the various corporations who use and contribute to Linux, as well as by the various independent contributors out there. It's those people who own the resources who decide." - Andrew Morton on the kernel process

If someone has that many problems with Linus they’re free to fork and maintain their own kernel source. If all someone wants is support not offered by the Linux kernel project then there are plenty of options there as well..,RHEL, SuSe, etc.

Absolutely agreed. That's one of the ways that political decentralisation in open-source manifests itself.

I've made the argument elsewhere in this thread that it's the decentralised nature of open-source that makes it safe to use and build on and not the personality or behaviour of any one person. Do you agree?

Can you make a compelling argument for why you would trust a random collection of unverified people on the Internet over someone with a well-known reputation that doesn't include anything bad (aside from being a bit of an arse occasionally, but at least he is honest about that!)?

That's not an argument. You're just naming a game theory concept. A compelling argument would at least explain why and how it applies to this situation.

Your an econ freshman arent you?

If you read the kernel mailing lists it's abundantly clear that Linus cares deeply about the quality of the kernel and rejects bullshit and corporate politics. He's exactly the kind of person I want to maintain a piece of technology that I rely on and trust every day.

I trust Linus from the fact that he put the user at a level of priority more important than anything esle in a time when few people did it, and this decision makes userspace solid as a rock to me over the years

Your topic isn’t in any way related to a kernel point release. Further, I suspect your criticism is not actual criticism but is instead malice.

I replied to a comment about trust and decentralisation that are both topics I am very interested in, and I believe you replied to my comment. I fail to see the malice...

There is a fine point beyond which criticism becomes destructive. So much so that all criticism must make clear strides towards positive advice.

I agree with you so I would like it if you could please show me what criticism I made exactly. I can't find one in this thread and don't understand why you've suspected me to be malicious or my intent to be destructive.