14 DAY TRIAL // The Linux kernel ecosystem is experiencing some turbulence these days, as a few important developers have quit the project, citing the "toxic" working environment or other technical factors.
Sarah Sharp, a long-time Linux kernel developer and coordinator of the Outreachy program, stepped down from all of her functions in the project and said that she would not continue to work. Even if she didn't say it, her issues with Linus Torvalds and a part of the community are not a novelty, and they played a big part in her decision to leave.
Now, another Linux kernel developer has decided to move away from the project. Matthew Garrett has been in the news a lot this past year, but surprisingly, not for the Linux kernel. He's been a constant critic of Canonical IP policy, and he has criticized the company more than once. In fact, he's a rather well-known kernel developer, and he had his fair share of disputes with Linus Torvalds. Unlike Sarah, he made his reasons a lot more clear.
Matthew Garrett is forking the Linux kernel
It's not clear how far Matthew Garrett will take his new fork of the kernel, but it's obvious that he doesn't intend to abandon his work. He will continue to push new security features and patches, but it will be for his branch.
"Thanks to the magic of free software, it turns out that I can avoid putting up with the bullshit in the kernel community and get to work on the things I'm interested in doing. So here's a kernel tree with patches that implement a BSD-style securelevel interface. Over time it'll pick up some of the power management code I'm still working on, and we'll see where it goes from there. But, until there's a significant shift in community norms on LKML, I'll only be there when I'm being paid to be there. And that's improved my mood immeasurably," wrote Mathew.
A GitHub entry for the new kernel is also provided. Happy compiling!