February 01, 2012, 10:54 AM — One of the principle maintainers of the Linux kernel, Greg Kroah-Hartman, has joined the Linux Foundation as a fellow, the same position held by Linux creator Linus Torvalds, the foundation announced.
Kroah-Hartman previously worked at Suse Linux, also as a fellow.
Kroah-Hartman is one of the chief developers working on the Linux kernel and handles a staggeringly large set of duties in maintaining the software. According to the Linux Foundation's most recent survey of Linux development, Kroah-Hartman contributed over 1,500 changes to the kernel, or about 0.8% of all changes made, between versions 2.6.12 and 2.6.35 of the kernel. He was the 10th most prolific contributor in that time period. Kroah-Hartman also helped compile the survey.
His speciality has been maintaining the Linux stable kernel branch, shepherding bug fixes and updates into versions of Linux already in production use. He also works on device drivers. He created and now maintains the Linux Driver Project, a collective of developers who maintain the many drivers needed for the OS kernel. He also maintains a number of important Linux subsystems including USB, tty (the basic Unix process that directs system output) and the sysfs virtual file system for holding device information in memory.
As a Linux Foundation Fellow, he will continue to execute these duties as well work with Linux Foundation members, participate in work groups and various initiatives to advance Linux.
The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit organization devoted to further developing and maintaining the open-source Linux kernel. It is funded by companies that use Linux in their own products and services, including Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Novell and Oracle.
Other Linux Foundation fellows include Till Kamppeter, Janina Sajka and Richard Purdie. Previous fellows include Steve Hemminger Andrew Morton, Andrew Tridgell and Ted Ts'o.
Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @Joab_Jackson. Joab's e-mail address is Joab_Jackson@idg.com
