Linus Torvalds Explains Why Aging Linux Developers Is a Good Thing

The sensible pillar of Linux, Linus Torvaldssays that despite long-standing reports of open source development burnoutLinux is as strong as ever — though I admit its project is maybe a bit unique in its scale and scope.

In conversation with Verizon’s open source chief Dirk Hohndel on the Linux Foundation conference Open Source Summit Europe In Vienna on Monday, Torvalds addressed a topic that always comes up in Linux World AND aside from: some aging developer community vulnerable to burnout.

“It’s absolutely true that the (Linux) kernel maintainers are getting older, but there’s something positive about that,” Torvalds said. “How many (open source) projects have maintainers who have been around for literally more than three decades? That’s very unusual. So when people say ‘programmers burn out and leave’ — yes, that’s true, but that’s kind of normal. What’s not normal is people actually staying for decades, that’s unusual, and I think that’s a good sign to some extent.”

Historically, Linux has been largely a C-centric kernel, but in 2022 the project official support for Rust introduceduniversal open-source programming language supported by many well-known technology corporations. Just a few weeks ago, the leader of the Rust for Linux project, Wedson Almeida Filho announced They quit after almost 4 years because they felt they “lacked the energy and enthusiasm” to take care of a few of the “non-technical crap” related to the project.

AND back in januarySenior Engineer Rust Jyn Nelson also noted that the issue of burnout may be very real. “The number of people who have left the Rust project due to burnout is shockingly high,” Nelson wrote. “The number of people on the project who are close to burnout is also shockingly high.”

Trust factor

Linux is arguably essentially the most successful open-source project of all time, connecting all the pieces from web servers and ATMs to the operating systems of desktop computers and mobile devices. In those years of growth, Torvalds branched out and created a ubiquitous version control system referred to as Git. But some 33 years later from LinuxSince its inception, Torvalds has been the core maintainer of the kernel, with support tens of 1000’s of collaborators from corporations depending on Linux, in addition to from closer sources corresponding to a member of the Linux Foundation Greg Kroah-Kartmanwhich is chargeable for the stable version of the Linux kernel.

“I think part of the problem with having a lot of developers is that we’ve always had a lot of people who are very competent and could grow,” Torvalds said. “Greg wasn’t always Greg—before Greg, there were the Andrews and the Allens, and after Greg, there will be the Shannons and the Steves. There are people who have been around for decades, and the real problem is that you have to have a person—or a group—that people in the development community can trust. And part of trust is basically being around ‘long enough’ for people to know how you work.”

Torvalds admitted, nonetheless, that such an ecosystem will be intimidating and difficult for younger or less experienced developers to enter, especially once they see the present ones who’ve been around for thus long. But there are still newcomers who manage to get into the guts of the Linux project.

“We have core developers who are the core maintainers of core subsystems who have come in over the course of just a few years,” Torvalds said. “It’s not instantaneous, but you have new people coming in who are core developers in three years. It’s not impossible. I think we have a pretty healthy core developer subsystem, but this whole monkey dance about programmers, programmers, programmers… we have them. The fact that we also have these old, graying people—I don’t see that as a big deal.”