True, if they don't like it, they could just fork away. 

However, the fork would never have the resources that mainline Linux has. And as long as Linus is alive, it likely wouldn't succeed.

I think it's FOSS attitude of "I can do whatever I want if I am the maintainer" (which is true)

the maintainer of the component won't accept the patch because he can't understand Rust code

It's a common accusation in the Linux/FOSS world that people block merges and leave nitpicking comments about code they didn't even try to understand and just glanced at. I don't know how real it is.  But I certainly know that the Linux world is full of people with this attitude.

devs

Linux Kernel Drama

zuspotirko

> the maintainer of the component won't accept the patch because he can't understand Rust code

It's a common accusation in the Linux/FOSS world that people block merges and leave nitpicking comments about code they didn't even try to understand and just glanced at. I don't know how real it is.  But I certainly know that the Linux world is full of people with this attitude.