Greg K-H

"Think about your kernel, how it's maintained, and what impact that might have." #devconfcz

5.0 isn't special. It's just 4.21 but Linus only has a total of 20 fingers and toes. ;) #DevConfCZ

Merge windows last about two weeks. It lasts from the most recent release (4.20 for now) and 5.0-rc1. (We are at 5.0-rc3 right now). Maintainers have their own trees and developers submit patches there. People generally don't submit a lot of patches directly to Linus. #DevConfCZ

Most bugs get introduced in merge windows but they also get fixed quickly there, too. Once the first rc appears, no new major features are allowed (except when they are). :) The focus is (usually) on bug fixes and stabilization. #DevConfCZ

"Getting a maintainer to take a patch off-cycle won't go well." It has a chance of reducing the quality of the kernel to be released (the one in the rc state) and maintainers will raise an eyebrow if you try to wedge in something new. #DevConfCZ