Comment by t43562

In an effort like Linux it's difficult for everyone to have their way - there are many "ways" but only one kernel.

I have had to do maintenance on a distributed filesystem driver at one point. This was outside the kernel. I can see why no kernel maintainer would have wanted to look after it even if it was open sourced because the file server was a mixture of C++ and an interpreted language and working out if you'd broken the driver somehow was a miserable job. You would need obscure expertise to understand it all.

Anyone with a good idea can still fork Linux. If their idea is so great it may end up that their branch gets adopted - if they bother to maintain it.