Upstream Mesa developers are considering establishing a formal governance model for the open source 3D driver stack, which has long relied on informal consensus for big changes. Citing developer burnout and the mental bandwidth spent fighting proposed changes, the tentative plan is to create a council focused mainly on conflict resolution rather than proactively driving decisions, with development practices otherwise unchanged and consensus still preferred. The council would likely take up disputes such as adding or removing drivers, legacy software support and other contentious features. No concrete proposal has been submitted yet; the idea was raised at XDC 2026 in Toronto.
Mesa Developers Looking At A Formal Governance Model
Upstream Mesa developers are considering establishing a formal governance model for the open source 3D driver stack, which has long relied on informal consensus for big changes. Citing developer burnout and the mental bandwidth spent fighting proposed changes, the tentative plan is to create a council focused mainly on conflict resolution rather than proactively driving decisions, with development practices otherwise unchanged and consensus still preferred. The council would likely take up disputes such as adding or removing drivers, legacy software support and other contentious features. No concrete proposal has been submitted yet; the idea was raised at XDC 2026 in Toronto.
Source: Phoronix