How much did UNIX vendors, Apple, Sony and co have contributed to BSDs?
I mean isn't this the exact same tactic they use with their as-a-service offerings all the time?
I will gladly invest days in fixing stuff, but if it takes me more than 20 minutes to figure out submitting my code you better pay me for it or it won't happen.
(And no, just because you set up your system 20 years ago and are used to it doesn't mean it is an acceptable system.)
TBH with the linux kernel I agree with Linus's interpretation. Email based patching is probably what keeps new contributors away (and you need new contributors to become maintainers...). In my experience you get several types of contributors:
1. Drive-by contributors
2. Regular contributors
Drive by contributors tend to be people who either are students looking to make a name for themselves or people who consume your product for a living. Regular contributors are generally people who are actually paid to work on the software. Drive by contributors may become regular contributors if they use your work regularly. Being on a platform like github significantly lowers the barrier for entry for drive-by contributors. I myself frequently patch downstream oss stuff that we depend on every now and then in a drive-by fashion. I only patch stuff thats on github/gitlab cause setting up a new software for patching is time consuming for me. Additonally the github/gitlab UX for suggesting changes is so much better than the email ux as you can specify exactly what is wrong/disagreeable. CI also is super useful as I don;t actually need to run every test myself when reviewing stuff.
