Nobody is immune to plane crashes, terrorist attacks, or fatal heart failure – not even Linus Torvalds, who still has the final say in the development of the kernel he named Linux. This worries many, as there is no public record of who or what would take over leadership in case of an emergency.
Archive link: https://archive.is/mZQg2
I’m not worried about who comes next after Linus. What I am worried about is who comes after GKH…
The Linux Foundation currently lists 6 total fellows (4 not including Torvalds and GKH). I have never even heard of any of them before. I know there are lots of developers on the Linux project, but it’s also a very political position, so I wonder who would take that mantle. Probably nothing to worry about too much, but interesting to think about.
Without Linus, linux will quickly become a train wreck of design by commitee… We should enjoy this time now with Linux being awesome. Its not going to last that much longer. Linus is gonna get old, and tech companies are gonna make sure their platforms are as locked in as possible, even preventing platforms like Linux from accessing their services. Maybe in 10 years or so.
So lets just appreciate what we have now. Its peak Linux right now.
There are linux compatible kernels in the works. There are some written in Rust too (although, at least one is MIT licensed). My prediction is that the linux kernel will die in its current form and be replaced by an alternative, probably an MIT one because industry loves that licence. Then we will have another Mac clone but based on Linux not BSD.
i wouldnt worry to much about this:
- alot of volunteers work on it, so 1 guy leaving would definetly not mean the end
- theres so many companies that have their own distro or rely on linux for servers. i bet they wouldnt wanna see linux die either
Nobody is worried about it dying. The risks outlined in the article are that some big company like Google, Apple, Nvidia, AMD, or Intel get someone in as CEO. And they stear development towards better support for their hardware and worse for their competitors
that would suck and make linux split into a billion fractions. cant wait for Microsoft Linux, Linux Chrome, Ubuntu Kernel, Linux Opensource Edition, iNux, etc
They technically already did this with Android which all ship custom kernels and closed source driver blobs.
Of which Google successfully lobbied the government to keep foreign competition out, which has lead to the soft death of AOSP as everyone else has forked into a new OS or accepts google’s terms to use their gapps suite.
Best thing about Linus is that he immediately tells these megacorps to f off every time they make a PR with even a remotely questionable purpose.
If they really want to achieve something technical without scrutiny, there’s FreeBSD right there. Implement it and make a future PR if it actually improves something.
Otherwise, critical choices within the Linux kernel will affect everyone, and could very easily lead to abuse without any proper moderation.
Google already has a hit order out on JPEGXL simply because they know that AVIF will save them on cloud storage cost, so they’ve effectively banned it from the browser space since they own Chrome and have enough leverage over Firefox.
Isn’t the fact that its Foss suggestive that it really doesn’t matter?
Python and node.js successfully transitioned out of the bdfl phase through wildly different paths. might be interesting for a while though.
Uh oh
Here’s the Link you were looking for: https://i.gifer.com/17mb.mp4
the fucking intrusiveness on that webpage is what’s going give me heart failure jfc
I updated the post with an archive link, sorry I always forget this website is like that because my ad blocking makes it appear clean to me
Please don’t. That means folks using hardened browsers can’t load the page due to a captcha
I literally couldn’t break out of the cookie consent loop. I had to leave without being able to read the article. Nice site bruh, will never visit again…
Firefox reader view worked well here. Whole thing copy/pasted below:
Missing Link: How Linux would continue without Linus Torvalds
Thorsten Leemhuis
8 - 10 minutes
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Missing Link: How Linux would continue without Linus Torvalds
Nobody is immune to plane crashes, terrorist attacks, or fatal heart failure – not even Linus Torvalds, who still has the final say in the development of the kernel he named Linux. This worries many, as there is no public record of who or what would take over leadership in case of an emergency.
This repeatedly leads to speculation in forums and articles in major media; no wonder, as it is a typical “bike shedding” topic that everyone can have an opinion on. Much of this is, however, far-fetched, as hardly anyone outside developer circles knows about the succession plan. While it is not written down, it de facto exists.
Successor is ready
A developer, considered by Torvalds and the maintainers of the most important areas of the Linux kernel, takes over the leadership. This person also needs the backing, as anyone can take the current Linux code at any time and start a direct competitor.
Was fehlt: In der rapiden Technikwelt häufig die Zeit, die vielen News und Hintergründe neu zu sortieren. Am Wochenende wollen wir sie uns nehmen, die Seitenwege abseits des Aktuellen verfolgen, andere Blickwinkel probieren und Zwischentöne hörbar machen.
For the past quarter century, those familiar with the scene have always known who the designated successor is. At the turn of the millennium, it was Alan Cox; around the introduction of Linux 2.6 in 2004, it was Andrew Morton for a few years. For over a decade now, it has been Greg Kroah-Hartman.
Kroah-Hartman can take the reins at any time
This became fully clear in 2018 when Linus Torvalds took a break after tirades: Kroah-Hartman then took over development leadership for a few weeks. He still has access to Torvalds’ Git repository with the main development branch of Linux, as the lead administrator of kernel.org recently mentioned to the author.
In any case, it has been Kroah-Hartman for some time now, not Torvalds, who usually signs the new versions of Linux distributed by Kernel.org. This includes new releases of the main development branch maintained by the Linux father, as he now only publishes them via the Git source code management system.
He usually does this on Sunday afternoons in Oregon, USA; they appear on Kernel.org often six to nine hours later on Monday mornings in Europe, after Kroah-Hartman, who lives in the Netherlands, has signed them. It is not known whether this happens before or after the first coffee.
Was fehlt: In der rapiden Technikwelt häufig die Zeit, die vielen News und Hintergründe neu zu sortieren. Am Wochenende wollen wir sie uns nehmen, die Seitenwege abseits des Aktuellen verfolgen, andere Blickwinkel probieren und Zwischentöne hörbar machen.
Different flight paths and working independently
Kroah-Hartman could therefore take over development at any time if something happened to Torvalds or if he stepped down. The former also once mentioned to the author that he and the Linux founder have not been on the same plane for years. Many would also welcome the fact that they now live on different continents and thus in different countries.
Similar to Morton before him, Kroah-Hartman, just like Linus Torvalds, receives an income as a “Fellow” at the Linux Foundation. This makes the two most important Linux developers largely independent: If they were employed by companies that contribute heavily to Linux, such as ARM, AMD, Alphabet/Google, Intel, Microsoft, Nvidia, or IBM/Red Hat, suspicions would quickly arise in contentious issues that they would influence kernel development in favor of their respective employer.
New development leadership, old problems
To whom the baton passes is, of course, enormously important. Even more important, however, is that the person enjoys the trust of the most important developers – above all, the maintainers of the kernel’s most important subsystems. Because if they don’t like the new leader at the top, they could start a fork of Linux at any time; such a thing would even be the probable outcome if the Linux Foundation or the Amazons, Googles, Metas, and IBMs of this world were to somehow seize control of Linux development.
Unlike other projects, such a fork could even start without an immediate name change: Torvalds has protected the term “Linux,” but it has always been used for operating systems built with it and their kernels, even if the latter differ significantly from what is distributed via Kernel.org. This is particularly the case with Android or the distributions from Canonical/Ubuntu, Red Hat, or Suse.
Almost 25 years ago, a developer fork even began to compete with the original unintentionally: In the first year of the Linux 2.4 series, Alan Cox’s “linux-ac” kernels were temporarily considered the better and more stable Linux kernels. Some distributions therefore use them by default; after fine-tuning for a larger and controversial course correction on Torvalds’ side, the two strands then merged again.
Distribute responsibility across multiple shoulders
Like a new CEO, Torvalds’ successor would naturally bring new ideas. For example, the person could bring in one or two developers and lead Linux development as a team. In the past five to ten years, some of the kernel’s larger subsystems have already begun to distribute the load across two or three shoulders. Much can be speculated about this. What will actually happen will only become clear when someone else takes the helm. However, there is currently no indication that Torvalds will give it up anytime soon.
(nen)
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This article was originally published in German. It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.
I’ve noticed sites are getting around Reader View by not loading all the content right off the bat. Just enough so you start to scroll so they can launch all the popups.
Means Reader mode only has a paragraph and a half to show.Sometimes putting it in reader mode then refreshing while still in reader mode will load all the content.
Ooh, I’ll try that, thank you
That’s when you hit em with that archive site.
And then nothing loads because JavaScript is required by the fucking archive site
JavaScript is a normal requirement for modern web browsers?
No
I don’t like JS either but it’s not a big deal. You can whitelist sites with noscript.
Firefox reader view worked well here.
I use Firefox, and while that is a good trick I have used and will surely use again, a lot of the time it’s a matter of principle for me.
If I can’t read the article in the normal way because they refuse to let me because I pick one of the choices they give me, then I will not partake in their content ever again.
Just use a normal browser. One for text. One without JavaScript
The issue is client side
lol, Firefox isn’t a “normal” browser?
Either way, sites can get around that. But do tell, which browser do you use? w3m, elinks, lynx? One of the other ones here?
Tor Browser.
Kay. Well, you do you. 👍
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I updated the post with an archive link, sorry I always forget this website is like that because my ad blocking makes it appear clean to me
Please no
Looks fine by me. Clicked the cookie link, done.
Funny thing, I spazzed out and clicked on my Putty link after accepting cookies. Putty pops over the website, for a split second I was like, “Oh what fresh hell is this?!”
Clicked the cookie link, done.
You clicked Accept or Don’t accept?
Thanks so much!
I have μBlock Origin but that doesn’t take away the cookie dialog covering the page. Do you have some extra setting in μBlock or some other ad blocker?
I’m wondering if you have the “cookie notices” and “annoyances” filters disabled? They are not checked by default. It’s under settings > filter lists. FWIW the page loaded cleanly for me.
Ah okay! No I have μBlock with untouched settings, so that’s probably not enabled in that case. Thanks for the tip!
Now all that’s left is to try and fix that artificial 5s delay on YouTube which is pretty freaking annoying and shitty by YouTube.
Oh man, I suspected that was artificial! 😡
It should definitely not-even-kidding be completely illegal!
Just turn off JavaScript. There literally is no cookie consent model
I’m not looking for tips on this, I know how to circumvent these things if it’s possible. It’s a matter of principle.
Wtf I got a DRM permission popup
Loads fine for me. I recommended disabling JavaScript, that’s probably your issue
Windows, Firefox, uBlock Origin, PiHole DNS, zero issues. Same in Edge.
PiHole DNS
that’s what I’m missing
I bet the journalist sat on the headline for a while… Missing Linknus… Missing Linusk… oh forget it.
no, “Missing Link” is a regular series on that news site: https://www.heise.de/thema/Missing-Link
To clarify a bit, “missing link” is a series highlighting interesting and sometimes surprising, but in general not totally obvious, connections between technologies and/or society.
IBM will offer his kids RedHst board membership and a pile of stock.
deleted by creator
It won’t. We’ll all move on to BSD.
Doubt it since BSD is missing a ton if features Linux has
That would change if the community of developers migrate
Features can be migrated (wasn’t that the whole point of POSIX? And GNU?).
At least it has a properly designed kernel, instead of some student’s monolithic toy project, bloated beyond any semblance of maintainability.
Once Torvalds is gone Linux will inevitably fracture (more). With no one with historical authority to settle disputes every distribution will end up maintaining its own version of the kernel, which will eventually become mutually incompatible.
This incompatibility will cause most distributions that stick to the remnants of the Linux kernel to be abandoned, with only the largest and commercial ones surviving, and eventually becoming closed source blobs enshittified beyond any semblance of usability.
Any distribution willing to survive and remain open source will have to migrate to a new, more stable kernel, and barring the emergence of HURD as an actually useable one BSD will be the only available option (and a much saner one at that).
