[$] Kernel quality control, or the lack thereof

Filesystem developers tend toward a high level of conservatism when itcomes to making changes; given the consequences of mistakes, this seemslike a healthy survival trait. One might rightly be tempted to regard arecent disagreement over the backporting of filesystem-related fixes to thestable kernels as an example of this conservatism, but there is more toit. The kernel development process has matured in many ways over theyears; perhaps this discussion hints at some of the changes that will beneeded to continue that maturation in the future.