According to the latest annual report from the Linux Foundation (LF), less than 3% of its budgetary resources are allocated to the thing it is named after!
Well yeah only 3% go to the kernel. Most of the rest seems to be going to everything else required for a functional OS. The kernel alone is fairly useless.
So what you’re saying is it’s not Linux, it’s somethingElse/Linux ?
Its software packages required to build functional GNU/Linux operating systems. Yes.
Normal people just call all of this “linux” for simplicity, but annoying people keep feeling a need to point out the distinction.
Right. And that somethingElse is probably not Unix
Or as I like to call it, somethingElse+Linux
Seems to be going to Corporate Operations, Event Services, Project Support. But little goes to Linux kernel, and project infrastructure.
What do you think Project Support is?
Yeah, the money’s “going to” two of the least funded categories in the chart. 🙄
That’s i believe is diversity in OS market. More funding to NetBSD and other alternative OSes should be done.
It’s nice of this poster to ignore the $181m spent on “other projects” and conclude this is some kind of scam. If we include the Linux Kernel with the other projects part, that’s about 67%, or two thirds, of their expenses are paying for various and assorted open source projects. Among them the kernel. So if you’re a “cash and cash alone” person, then 2/3rds of your money is still going as cash to software projects.
And if we include things like community tooling and project services, which may help a project in ways beyond just cash that becomes about 78% in total, or over three quarters.
That’s pretty good, I think, but to each their own.
Mhm, I think this is more complicated than it looks. The LF today isn’t a direct Linux kernel funding body and more an umbrella for open-source governance (infrastructure, events, certification, security work, to name a few). So the other 97% are not necessarily wasted. Also, many kernel developers are paid outside of the LF by companies like Red Hat, Google, AMD, SUSE, Microsoft. So in reality there is alot more cash flowing towards Linux kernel development. A better/sharper criticism would be that the LF has become an industry consortium for “enterprise open source” or so, rather than a Linux-centered foundation. The counterpoint on the other Hand is that this founded infrastructure is exactly what allows large-scale open-source projects to function in the first place.
There could well be a kernel of valid criticism in it but this article is so exaggerated and strident, that I can’t take it seriously. It’s like people who scream GOVERNMENT WASTE about every budget line item that is not obviously important to someone who has only the most simple and ignorant understanding of it.
Corpos doing what corpos do better.
12% to AI
Yikes
Sincerely, what did you expect? I mean, obviously it’s hyped right now, but let’s be real - AI is not going to go away anymore.
that was the most worrying part of it to me; nothing is safe from ai apparently.
Linus and Greg aren’t willing to save anything either.
They rolled over on the American government’s demand to expell Russian contributors like puppies begging for a treat.
Linux has become as captured as any Western institution.
American
You mean Yankee
to-MAE-to
to-MAH-to
No.
America is a continent. There are more non yankees (or genocide supporters) than yankees in America.
i understand what yankee means and my use of the word “american” here was intentional.
yes, the yankee gov’t has captured linux.
a significant portion of the people in this community don’t know the word “yankee” but they’re capable of understanding it and to express the idea to them, you have to use words or expressions that fit the context this group’s frame of reference so that they can fully understand the idea you’re trying to express without it getting lost in translation; the people who exist at the intersection of multiple identities call it “code switching”.
Okay, but … while in some circles, “Linux” does indeed mean just the Linux kernel, it’s often used more casually to refer to the entire operating system and open source ecosystem that make Linux usable on servers, home PCs, and a bunch of other devices.
Sure, strictly speaking, only the kernel is technically “Linux” … but if you have a machine with only the kernel on it and absolutely nothing else, you’re going to have a bad time and that machine won’t be useful for very much.
While only a small portion of their funding goes to the kernel, it seems from looking at their charts that a majority of their funding is going to things that will (at least in theory) help make life better for most people who are running and using the Linux kernel. My only real complaint from looking at those charts is that they’re spending 12% on “AI, ML, Data & Analytics”. Fuck that shit.
Most actual Linux code changes come from large companies implementing or improving drivers for their own hardware.
The Linux foundation mostly manages the Linux “brand”. That is, all the logistics and infrastructure required to run a huge project with many stakeholders.
The linux foundation does not care about linux. They don’t even use it.
That’s awful. That’s why I’m not a member or donor. They are just using the name to make money.
Why is it so important for Linus Torvalds’ salary to be in the top 10? He might think it is fair, based on his current contributions to the project.
eyeballing it, that all looks like stuff that an organization of that scale would have to spend money on, and better the entity and its sponsors paying instead of kernel developers
