~/talk

Guide To Become Linux Kernel Maintainer

on YouTube 38m
Talkat Open Source Summit India 2026 · on Tuesday, 2026-06-16· at 16:50· Lotus Ballroom 3 (Level 3)· [open-source]

speaker

name:Krzysztof Kozlowski
website:https://krzk.eu

resources

video:https://youtu.be/csSykRsRezM
slides:none on file

summary

Linux kernel maintainership requires being an active contributor, knowing Git and the email-based workflow, and committing real time to reviews and grooming; the kernel sees ~2,000 developers per release, ~300 new contributors (peaking at ~500), and maintains ~300 subsystem trees, so reviewers are scarce. Paths: submit code and name yourself maintainer, earn trust by doing deep reviews, or adopt orphan subsystems. Use tooling like Patchwork and Corgalor, check AI-assisted reviews such as Sashiko but value human judgement, and respond within 1–2 weeks to be effective.

AI-written summary · about

chapters (6)

  1. 0:00Introduction
  2. 1:04Linux kernel needs maintainers
  3. 7:47Maintainer prerequisites
  4. 13:04Paths to maintainership
  5. 20:29Q&A
  6. 37:05Summary

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