Torvalds Joins OSDL

Open Source

Torvalds will leave his developer post at microprocessor company Transmeta to work full-time on Linux kernel development as the first OSDL Fellow. OSDL is a Beaverton, Ore.-based consortium of more than 20 vendors,including IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Dell Computer and Intel,pushing enterprise adoption of Linux.

Torvalds will also set the priorities and direction for OSDL's industry initiatives, according to the group.

Torvalds, who holds the trademark to the Linux brand name, has never worked in an official capacity for any Linux company and has steered clear of the business and legal aspects of Linux. That won't change, Torvalds said in an e-mail to CRN last week.

"The role ends up being pretty much the same as far as outsiders can see, i.e., Linux kernel development. It's the setting, not the role, that is new and the fact that I can do [kernel development] all the time," Torvalds told CRN, noting that he will continue working in California. "Setting does matter, even if it's only because you end up talking with different people, and it influences you indirectly that way. But no, my aims haven't changed."

While the Linux founder said he will work on kernel development only, observers point out that his appointment comes at a time when the development of Linux itself is under legal fire.

Last week, The SCO Group, which filed a lawsuit against IBM in March, revoked IBM's AIX license and filed an amended lawsuit in Salt Lake City District Court after failing to reach a settlement with IBM.

In its March filing, SCO claimed IBM improperly donated System V Unix code owned by SCO to the open-source Linux community. In the amended suit, SCO asks the court to give it permission to pull IBM's AIX license permanently and to award SCO billions of dollars in damages.

No court date has been set for a SCO-IBM face-off. An IBM spokeswoman said the company will continue to ship and invest in AIX, as well as Linux.

Torvalds dismissed the ongoing SCO-IBM legal battle as a reason for his decision to join OSDL. "When it comes to things I can't much affect, I try to take a wait-and-see attitude and just mostly ignore it," he wrote in an e-mail.

However, those in the Linux community say the time is right for Torvalds to step up and take a more formal leadership role. "His move to OSDL is both practical and strategic," said Rick Berenstein, co-chairman of Xandros, a Linux desktop software company.

To date, IBM has been viewed as a leader in the Linux business community. IBM executives fill both the CEO and chairman seats of OSDL.

One Linux solution provider said that Torvalds' new leadership role will have a positive impact on the business and legal challenges facing Linux. "It will allow him %85 to focus on some non-technical aspects of Linux, such as community relations, political issues and other things that might have been left to others," said Chris Maresca, president of Olliance Group, Palo Alto, Calif. "But I don't think it will significantly change the development pace of Linux. It's not like [Torvalds has] been abdicating responsibility for stuff he needs and wants to deal with."

Meanwhile, Linux business keeps growing. Avnet Hall-Mark, for one, recently launched Load'n'Run, a tool that reduces Linux load times on IBM iSeries servers to minutes from hours.

The Tempe, Ariz.-based distributor has seen a 30 percent increase in the number of channel partners selling IBM Linux solutions this year compared with last year, said Fred Cuen, senior vice president and general manager of Avnet Hall-Mark's IBM business unit.

"We tell solution providers if they haven't sold Linux into their account set in the past quarter, they've lost a server sale to a competitor," he said. "It may be to another IBM VAR or another vendor, but they've lost business. Customers are embracing the technology."

SCOTT CAMPBELL contributed to this story.