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- If something happens to Linus Torvalds, there is now a succession plan in place.
- Rather than naming a successor, the plan describes the process of selecting successors.
- However, Torvalds has no plans to retire.
After more than three decades in the Linux driver’s seat, Linus Torvalds will one day step down from his role as gatekeeper of the Linux kernel. Of course, we’ve always known this, but open-source projects are no longer gambling on that scenario. The core kernel community has formally drafted a project continuity plan Outlining how it will replace Torvalds As a top level escort if something were to happen to him or if he retired.
Also: Linus Torvalds is a ‘big believer’ in using AI to maintain code – just don’t call it a revolution
Notice, when I just asked him if he had any retirement plans – my own plan is to grace my keyboard – he replied, “My plan just seems to be ‘I’m going to live forever.'”
More pragmatically following the “happy wife, happy life” principle, he said, “Perhaps just as importantly, my wife doesn’t want to be put up with a bored husband.” I can’t argue with that.
The latest discussion on the new “Plan for the Future” prepared by longtime kernel contributor Dan Williams Linux Kernel Maintainer Summit in Tokyo, where he introduced it as “imbued with an uplifting theme”. Our eventual march towards death.”
No successor has been identified
Torvalds said in our conversation, “One of the reasons it came up this time was that my previous contract with the Linux Foundation expired in the third quarter last year, and the people on the Linux Foundation Technical Advisory Board knew about it. Of course, they also knew that we had renewed the contract, but that meant that it was discussed.”
Also: What tech giants Linus Torvalds and Bill Gates talked about in their first meeting
The plan stalls before even naming a single successor. Instead, it creates a clear process for choosing one or more maintainers to take over the top-level Linux repository in a worst-case or systematic-transition scenario, including holding a conference to consider options and maximize long-term project health. An escort in Tokyo jokingly suggested that the group, like the conclave that selects a new Pope, be locked in a room and send out a plume of white smoke when a decision is made.
The documentation presents this as a way to avoid the classic “bus factor” problem. That is, what would happen to a project if its leader was hit by a bus? Torvalds’ central role today means that the project currently assumes a bus-factor, where one person’s exit could, in theory, destabilize the merge and eventual release. In practice, as Torvalds and other top maintainers have discussed, the top Penguin job will almost certainly go to currently stable-branch Linux kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman.
Torvalds and his friend Dirk Hohndel, head of Verizon open source, discussed the matter in 2024. Hohndel said that “To be the king of Linux, the main maintainer, you have to have a lot of experience. And the backup right now is Greg Kah, who is the same age as us and has less hair.”
Also: Linus Torvalds weighs in on gray hair maintenance and being the next ‘King of Linux’
Torvalds responded, “But the thing is, Greg hasn’t always been Greg. Before Greg, there was Andrew Morton and Alan Cox. After Greg, there will be Shannon and Steve. The real issue is that you have to have a person or group of people that the development community can trust, and part of the trust is basically about being around long enough so that people know how you work, but long enough doesn’t have to mean 30 years.” Is.”
Krohg-Hartman has stepped in on an interim basis before. He served as head of Linux when Torvalds stepped away from kernel work in 2018 to improve dealings with other developers and maintainers. However, Kroh‑Hartmann is older than Torvalds.
Multiple Trusted Developers
As a result, people have suggested that instead of replacing Torvalds with another Benevolent Dictator for Life (BDFL), the role of top-level maintainer should be distributed among several trusted developers.
At age 56 and still the final arbiter on almost every change coming to torvalds/linux.git, Torvalds has often joked that the Linux inner circle is “getting gray and old.” This sentiment has become more urgent as the project has struggled with maintenance fatigue and the recruitment of younger contributors into key subsystem leadership roles.
Also: Even Linus Torvalds Is Vibe Coding Now
There is no expectation that Torvalds will leave his post any time soon. He remains firmly in place as the supervisor of mainline development. He will stay in that job until he can’t do it anymore. But, at least now, there is a process to fix the last “Linus-dependence” problem if needed.
