this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026
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Linux

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[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 148 points 4 days ago (3 children)

tl;dr:

If, for whatever reason, progress on the torvalds/linux.git repository is affected, someone has to get things moving within 72 hours. This person could either be the one who organized the most recent Maintainer Summit or the chair of the Linux Foundation's Technical Advisory Board (TAB).

They will be tasked with pulling together the people who were invited to the last summit, along with members of the TAB.

It gets more complicated after that, but essentially that's it.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure there already is more than one top maintainers for the kernel code anyhow.

[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 33 points 4 days ago (1 children)

So yeah, there's no exact answer to "what happens to Linux after Torvalds", it's more of "who gets to add more maintainers to torvalds/linux.git if nobody merges things in there for 72 hours". I suppose Linus is confident that the system of distributed maintainers is robust enough to survive his & gregkh's incapacitation, and the only remaining point of failure is access to the central repo itself. I think he is underestimating the governance upheaval that would happen if he was to disappear, so I hope that he puts some more details about his views on future project governance in writing.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 7 points 3 days ago

A thousand years from now there will be priests delivering sermons on the Book of Linus

[–] Chee_Koala@lemmy.world 43 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Thanks for the tldr, it's a simple fix but at least now we have some plan instead of no plan.

[–] Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 4 days ago

The project must go on!

[–] PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Whats so special about 72 hours? It sounds like it would selfdestruct if nobody presses the dead man switch every 3 days?

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Is this another inside joke? I don't get it.

[–] fatalicus@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

Oh, deep cut. I did not see that string as separate numbers. Thank you for the explanation.

[–] Eternal192@anarchist.nexus 38 points 4 days ago (2 children)

He creates something, lets it grow and sets it free, Linux is pretty much everywhere and GitHub was recently purchased by Microslop, sorry Microsoft (keeps autocorrecting) and he has no intention to hold anything just for himself, he likes creating "campfires" around which like-minded people can gather and share ideas to oversimplify it.

[–] Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 79 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Github =/= Git, if that was what you were trying to indicate.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 3 days ago

and the kernel repo on github is a mirror, for those who don't know

[–] Flamekebab@piefed.social 26 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I thought they bought GitHub ages ago?

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 15 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Depends on the beholder's POV I guess; but yeah, even to a middle-aged fart like me 2018 is not "recent" anymore.

[–] Flamekebab@piefed.social 22 points 4 days ago

GitHub was founded in 2008 so nearly half its life it has been owned my MS. Yeah, "recent" doesn't feel like a good fit here.

[–] TheV2@programming.dev 6 points 4 days ago

Yes, vice versa even to a young bird like me 2018 was just yesterday and the acquisition by Microsoft feels even more recent.

[–] costalfy@framapiaf.org 8 points 4 days ago

@costalfy@programming.dev

Dans un scénario post-Linus, @gregkh l'un des mainteneurs les plus respectés après Torvalds, est pressentis pour assumer le leadership. @torvalds lui-même a validé ce plan en signant le commit qui l'a rendu officiel.