You would be thrilled, but would that get the candidate the job?
A very common topic about programming is how useless are most whiteboard job interviews, as they challenge the interviewees on something they will never use in the job.
Few things are farther away from day-to-day programming that a white-board problem, but kernel development might just be one of them.
In regards to the GP story, I'm also saddened that the interviewers didn't show interest for those projects. Kernel development indicates a high aptitude for many kinds of unrelated programming jobs, but not for most of them. Especially "enterprise" jobs. For the purposes of the interview the "banal professional project" is likely the relevant one.
If anything, having the senior developers show no interest is a good thing, and indicates that even if the candidate gets the job he probably won't enjoy his time at the company.
A very common topic about programming is how useless are most whiteboard job interviews, as they challenge the interviewees on something they will never use in the job.
Few things are farther away from day-to-day programming that a white-board problem, but kernel development might just be one of them.
In regards to the GP story, I'm also saddened that the interviewers didn't show interest for those projects. Kernel development indicates a high aptitude for many kinds of unrelated programming jobs, but not for most of them. Especially "enterprise" jobs. For the purposes of the interview the "banal professional project" is likely the relevant one.
If anything, having the senior developers show no interest is a good thing, and indicates that even if the candidate gets the job he probably won't enjoy his time at the company.