Linus Torvalds advises open-source developers to pursue meaningful projects, not hype

At the Open Source Summit (OSS) Europe event in Vienna, Austria, on Sept. 16, the always colorful Linus Torvalds took the stage in a fireside chat to detail his views on the latest open source and Linux developments. The Linux Foundation, which hosts the event as well as employs Torvalds, used the summit to make a series of announcements.

Among the news:

• The free5GC open source 5G core software project is moving to the Linux Foundation.
• The CAMARA project issued its first release, providing common network APIs for telcos and hyperscalers.
• AWS moved its OpenSearch technology to new governance under the Linux Foundation.
• Linux kernel 6.11 release is out.

“We’ve had a very good regular cadence of releases, and it has resulted in the fact that we’re doing the releases every roughly nine weeks,” Torvalds said. “That means that releases are not exciting, and they’re not supposed to be. They are timely, and they are hopefully very reliable. But exciting is not, I think, the goal.”

What’s new in Linux 

The Linux kernel is the core component of any Linux distribution. Torvalds emphasized that most kernel changes are still driver updates. That said, core kernel development continues even now, 33 years after he first started Linux.

“I’m still surprised by the fact that we’re doing very core development,” Torvalds said, citing recent work on fairly low-level virtual file system code and discussions about memory management and “…things that have been around forever.” This continued evolution, he suggested, is driven by the continued expansion of the hardware base but also the continued expansion of the user base.

One of the most significant recent milestones in Linux development has been the completion of the real-time Linux project, which Torvalds wryly described as having a very brief development cycle of about 20 years. The real-time Linux project brings a high level of determinism to operating system functions. This project exemplifies the sometimes lengthy process of kernel development.

“While kernel development is very active, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you can get a new feature, file system, or anything into the kernel very quickly,” Torvalds said. “There’s often a long development period that people seldom even see.”

Torvalds remains optimistic about the state of open source  

Contrary to concerns about recent tech industry layoffs and reduced corporate involvement in open source, Torvalds painted an optimistic picture. 

“I feel like open source is doing very well,” he said. “People take open source for granted now in a way that they absolutely did not just two decades ago.”

Torvalds highlighted the democratizing effect of open source, particularly for newcomers to the tech industry. He noted that any new programmer can use open source as a way to enter the industry and make connections without necessarily having gone to the right schools or having the personal connections that are often needed in many other industries.

For those looking to start new open-source projects, Torvalds advised finding a niche that is both personally interesting and meaningful to others. 

“In the tech industry, so much is about the hype. Everybody is following everybody else like lemmings off a cliff, trying to chase the next big thing, and I don’t think that’s a successful strategy,” Torvalds said. “I think you need to find something that isn’t what everybody else does and excel at that and be the first to do something slightly different.”