The Linux Kernel Developers Summit is an annual gathering of the top

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ...

developers. Attendance at the summit is by invitation only, and the conference was first held in San Jose in March, 2001. It was organized by

Theodore Ts'o Theodore (Ted) Yue Tak Ts'o (曹子德) (born 1968) is an American software engineer mainly known for his contributions to the Linux kernel, in particular his contributions to file systems. He is the Secondary developer and maintainer of e2fspr ...

to provide a face to face venue for kernel developers to discuss current and future issues surrounding Linux kernel development, and was initially run by Usenix and then VA Linux's Open Source Developer's Network. Subsequent summits from 2002 to 2006 were held the two days prior to the

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in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada at the same conference center with Usenix providing all of the logistical support. The 2007 Kernel Summit was held on 4–6 September 2007 at the DeVere University Arms Hotel in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

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, and was the first time the summit was moved outside of North America. The discussions at the kernel summit have traditionally been highly technical, with a focus on issues that were not getting resolution via electronic mail. In recent years, however, the summit has been gradually focusing more on higher level development process issues. An example of an important development process decision made at the kernel summit was the decision to move to a rolling stable 2.6 kernel every few months, instead of the formerly used model utilizing a 1-2 year development cycle. The Linux Technical Advisory Board is elected at a bird-of-a-feather session at the Linux Kernel Summit. The summit usually hosts around 80 or so attendees.

References

{{Reflist, colwidth=30em Linux conferences Recurring events established in 2001