Linus Torvalds, Andrew Morton, Brian Behlendorf, and Mitch Kapor delivered a panel-style keynote at yesterday's OSDL Enterprise Summit, in Burlingame, Calif. The open source luminaries spoke informally about their interests and concerns, which include kernel developer access to embedded hardware.

According to LinuxDevices.com founder Rick Lehrbaum, a question from the audience about embedded development prompted both Torvalds and Morton to note that little work is being done on embedded-specific kernel elements, in part because embedded development tends to be very hardware-specific. Further, kernel developers do not generally have access to the specialized systems that embedded developers target, the two said. Morton encouraged companies in the embedded market to submit their enhancements for consideration.

eWEEK's Peter Galli reports that Linux originator Torvalds spoke about his evolving role in the development of Linux. “Sadly, I've become a manager,” Galli quotes Torvalds as saying.

Morton, who maintains the 2.6 kernel, talked about practical changes in the way the Linux kernel is developed, which are often touted among the biggest advancements in the 2.6 kernel series.

Apache author Brian Behlendorf spoke about how software is written, and why development projects usually fail. Mitch Kapor, a visionary who lead the creation of the first great PC application, the Lotus spreadsheet, spoke about Chandler, an open source personal information manager that he helped design as part of his work overseeing the Open Source Applications Foundation.

Additional topics discussed, according to Galli, include the way open source projects select developers, the future of Linux, and how Linux's growing number of users has not radically enlarged the pool of open source development talent.

Find out more, by reading the full story at eWEEK.

 
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