1. Missing Link: How Linux would continue without Linus Torvalds

• Successor is ready
• Kroah-Hartman can take the reins at any time
• Different flight paths and working independently
• New development leadership, old problems
• Distribute responsibility across multiple shoulders

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.

• Mehr zum Feuilleton “Missing Link”

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.

• Mehr zum Feuilleton “Missing Link”

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.

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This article was originally published in German. It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.