No, It's (Still) Never Too Late to Upstream Your Legacy Linux Based Platforms
summary
Argues upstreaming legacy Linux ports pays off with concrete examples and timelines: prepared a ST ston8 gen3 platform over six months and achieves 90% merged for 6.8, with remaining pieces landing in the next cycle; a touchscreen driver takes one year for touchscreen driver and 15 patch revisions. Uses Device Tree, CI/build validation, Linux-next and close maintainer coordination; simple drivers often merge across two–three kernel releases, complex SoCs take a year or more. Result: mainline boots, features like USB-C/audio follow in subsequent releases and maintenance burden drops.
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chapters (9)
- 0:00Upstreaming legacy Linux platforms
- 2:11Why upstreaming matters
- 9:43Key benefits of upstreaming
- 13:58Efficient upstream workflow
- 17:41Time and effort for upstreaming
- 23:30Delays and challenges in upstreaming
- 29:25Upstreaming very old Linux ports
- 31:57Business and technical advantages
- 34:12Q&A
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