“The most recent example is a now-merged merge request to revert an earlier change bumping the Zlib dependency for Mesa. The basis for that revert is that it breaks SPECViewPerf.”

"Due to Mesa dynamically linking Zlib and how SPECViewPerf is handled, the update happens to break SPECViewPerf that is a popular benchmark for workstation graphics and one commonly used by hardware vendors and other stakeholders. Ultimately it’s an issue with how SPECViewPerf is setup as an application bug but it could also be argued that Mesa could statically link it or better handle its dependencies. In any event, it’s a regression for Mesa and breaks SPECViewPerf. And SPECViewPerf is important to vendors.

So the immediate solution that’s now been merged is to revert that Zlib update commit…"

"They think it’s a technical issue. It’s not. It’s a political and strategic issue for the Mesa community. If you prevent something from working that the industry finds important, you risk destroying real jobs in this community and shrinking it, regressing Mesa’s reputation, making it more inferior in the industry, and thus less important. What this revert does is that it preserves existing jobs (i.e. existing stuff keeps working) and opens the door for creating new jobs and growing this community in a sustainable manner by showing others what it can do. You need capital and business interests to grow the community, and to get that, Mesa must be the best because it’s always competing with alternatives.

If you thought this is only about dependencies, well, you’re mistaken, and if you want to hurt the future of Mesa because your stupid zlib dependency is more important than anything else, including the livelihood of other people, you’re just a foolish bikeshedder."