linux speedboat effect

Refers to the problem of getting your patches into the Linux kernel at the
right time, otherwise maintainers may have little interest and it becomes
increasingly difficult to forward port to mainline.

  "Even when vendors actually release the corresponding source code and
  don't drop in binary blobs, due to the phenomenon I call 'the Linux
  speedboat', if they've forked an old kernel and done things their way, and if
  someone doesn't get on the case immediately, there's the unenviable task of
  forward-porting that code to whatever it is that the Linux kernel developers
  happen to like today. If the vendor didn't manage to throw their code aboard
  the speedboat at the right time, everyone is left floating in the wake."

  -- Paul Boddie