As we all know, The Linux Foundation has continually lowered its direct support for the Linux Kernel almost every year -- with the quarter-Billion dollar (annual) foundation spending a measly 3.2% of its annual expenditures on Linux.
In fact...
The Foundation that controls Linux spends less on Linux, every year, than they spend on "Blockchain", "Artificial Intelligence", "Compliance Best Practices", and a wide variety of other projects. Heck, they even make "Vaccine Passports" and a "Metaverse" competitor nowadays.
All of which has prompted many -- including The Lunduke Journal -- to point out that "The Linux Foundation" isn't really about Linux anymore.
And, as if to drive the point home, it has now been announced -- at the Linux Foundation's Open Source Summit -- that Long Term Support versions of the Linux Kernel will be killed off entirely.
From the Kernel Report presentation by Kernel maintainer (and LWN editor) Jonathan Corbet:
"the six-year update policy is going away. When 4.14 goes out of support… early next year… there will not be another six-year kernel to replace it."
The plan appears to be to stop all support of "Long Term Support" versions of the Linux Kernel. Effectively dropping the longest amount of time a given Kernel branch is supported from 6 years... down to just 2 years.
At a time when The Linux Foundaiton profits are soaring... support for the core Linux kernel is being scalled back in a highly significant way.
The Lunduke Journal isn't the only publication concerned about this. This quote from Liam Proven at The Register makes a solid point:
"with big companies from around the world proudly talking about their use of open source and their large-scale adoption of Linux, the core project behind it all, the kernel itself, is under-resourced and under-funded."
Here's the thing:
I don't blame the existing Linux Kernel maintainers for scaling back support for the Linux Kernel. A great many of them are unpaid and overworked.
If only there were some... I dunno... Foundation... which brings in roughly a quarter of a Billion dollars (that's Billion with a capital B) specifically chartered with supporting the Linux Kernel. You know... a Foundation with "Linux" right in the name. That sort of Foundation sure could be useful right about now.
Unfortunately The Linux Foundation is too preoccupied with Blockchains, Vaccine Passports, The Metaverse, Climate Change, and A.I. to spend their money and resources supporting the very project they were created to support.
At this point it is crystal clear: The Linux Foundation has almost completely abandoned Linux.
I know. That sounds utterly riridulous.
Because it is.
Alas, that is the state of things. It's not even really up for debate. It just is what it is.
Now, here's a question worth asking:
If one Foundation has primary control over Linux -- managing the trademark, with the most central kernel figures as employees -- and that Foundation is now primarily about doing anything but Linux... what happens to Linux?
It's worth pondering on. Because it's happening right now.
