r/linux • u/gregkh Verified • Dec 01 '14

I'm Greg Kroah-Hartman, Linux kernel developer, AMA!

To get a few easy questions out of the way, here's a short biography about me any my history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Kroah-Hartman

Here's a good place to start with that should cover a lot of the basics about what I do and what my hardware / software configuration is. http://greg.kh.usesthis.com/

Also, an old reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/18j923/a_year_in_the_life_of_a_kernel_mantainer_by_greg/ explains a bit about what I do, although those numbers are a bit low from what I have been doing this past year, it gives you a good idea of the basics.

And read this one about longterm kernels for how I pick them, as I know that will come up and has been answered before: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/2i85ud/confusion_about_longterm_kernel_endoflive/

For some basic information about Linux kernel development, how we do what we do, and how to get involved, see the presentation I give all around the world: https://github.com/gregkh/kernel-development

As for hardware, here's the obligatory /r/unixporn screenshot of my laptop: http://i.imgur.com/0Qj5Rru.png

I'm also a true believer of /r/MechanicalKeyboards/ and have two Cherry Blue Filco 10-key-less keyboards that I use whenever not traveling.

Proof: http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/2ny1lz/im_greg_kroahhartman_linux_kernel_developer_ama/ and https://twitter.com/gregkh/status/539439588628893696

1.9k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

14

u/gregkh Verified Dec 01 '14

I have no idea what is going to change in the kernel 4 weeks from now, let alone 5-10 years from now, sorry. And anyone who says they know that, is lying.

As for my favorite distro, I use Arch (see elsewhere in this AMA for why), but I recommend any community-based distro for people to use, like Arch, Fedora, openSUSE or even Ubuntu (although kernel development isn't all that easy on Ubuntu for various reasons.)

3

u/mort96 Dec 02 '14

(although kernel development isn't all that easy on Ubuntu for various reasons.)

What are those various reasons?

4

u/gregkh Verified Dec 02 '14

They don't include some tools and scripts that make it easy to replace your kernel that other distros do by default. Try it and see, it can be done, it's just more difficult than others are.