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.

[–] Fmstrat@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Yes, there are a number of core kernel maintainers (alongside GK-H). Last week I got to spend the week with those designing (and am now participating in) the next iteration of how keys will be managed for the kernel supply chain. Fun times.

[–] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago

Something to be proud of I'm sure!

[–] Chee_Koala@lemmy.world 37 points 6 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 10 points 6 days ago

The project must go on!

[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 23 points 6 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 6 points 6 days ago

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

[–] PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world 6 points 6 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 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

4815162342

[–] PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] fatalicus@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Never seen Lost?

[–] PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

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