LinuxCon: Tracing Linux’s Roots, Mapping Its Future

LinuxCon speakers made it clear that Linux is about more than just an OS. It is about a wider market of open-source technologies that Linux helps enable.

Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, used his time on the LinuxCon keynote stage to firmly declare Linux the most successful software project in history.

Zemlin provided some impressive statistics about Linux. There are 53,000 source files in the Linux kernel. Linux powers 90 percent of the world’s stock exchanges and benefits from the contributions of over 3,900 developers around the world.

Red Hat is the largest Linux vendor, by revenue, and the company’s success is intertwined with the 25-year history of Linux. Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst used his time on stage to talk about how a seemingly odd connection, like the U.S. Navy’s need for a real-time OS, ended up helping the financial services community and the broader Linux market.

For much of Linux’s history, Microsoft has been the arch-nemesis with a mission to extinguish Linux. Microsoft is embracing Linux and, according to Wim Coekaerts, corporate vice president of enterprise open source at Microsoft, the new mission is to enable, integrate, release and contribute to open-source software.

Linus Torvalds provided insight to LinuxCon attendees about the highlights and lowlights of the last 25 years of Linux. In his view, the GPL (General Public LIcense) under which Linux is licensed has been a key enabler of Linux’s success. “I love the GPL and see it as a defining factor in the success of Linux,” Torvalds said.

While the Linux Foundation started out as being just about Linux, the organization now helps support and operate projects across the open-source landscape including cloud, container, networking and virtualization efforts.

Among the projects the Linux Foundation now hosts is the Hyperledger blockchain effort. IBM Fellow Donna Dillenberger discussed how the company is using blockchain to help verify accounts payable transactions across IBM suppliers.

An emerging idea in the OS space is that of the unikernel. Docker engineer Amir Chaudhry detailed the idea of how a purpose-built kernel, known as a unikernel, could help optimize performance while reducing the attack surface for an application.

While the idea of games in an exhibit area isn’t new for any technology conference, there was a Canadian content infusion at LinuxCon this year with a bubble hockey game.

During the closing keynotes, Jim Zemlin announced that that the LinuxCon event was being renamed “Open Source Summit” for 2017. Next year’s event is scheduled to take place in Los Angeles.