Okay, but … while in some circles, “Linux” does indeed mean just the Linux kernel, it’s often used more casually to refer to the entire operating system and open source ecosystem that make Linux usable on servers, home PCs, and a bunch of other devices.

Sure, strictly speaking, only the kernel is technically “Linux” … but if you have a machine with only the kernel on it and absolutely nothing else, you’re going to have a bad time and that machine won’t be useful for very much.

While only a small portion of their funding goes to the kernel, it seems from looking at their charts that a majority of their funding is going to things that will (at least in theory) help make life better for most people who are running and using the Linux kernel. My only real complaint from looking at those charts is that they’re spending 12% on “AI, ML, Data & Analytics”. Fuck that shit.

'Corporate Operations' gets double the budget of the Kernel itself.

Some people are living very well doing absolutely nothing.

Most actual Linux code changes come from large companies implementing or improving drivers for their own hardware.

The Linux foundation mostly manages the Linux "brand". That is, all the logistics and infrastructure required to run a huge project with many stakeholders.

eyeballing it, that all looks like stuff that an organization of that scale would have to spend money on, and better the entity and its sponsors paying instead of kernel developers

Well yeah only 3% go to the kernel. Most of the rest seems to be going to everything else required for a functional OS. The kernel alone is fairly useless.

It's nice of this poster to ignore the $181m spent on "other projects" and conclude this is some kind of scam. If we include the Linux Kernel with the other projects part, that's about 67%, or two thirds, of their expenses are paying for various and assorted open source projects. Among them the kernel. So if you're a "cash and cash alone" person, then 2/3rds of your money is still going as cash to software projects.

And if we include things like community tooling and project services, which may help a project in ways beyond just cash that becomes about 78% in total, or over three quarters.

That's pretty good, I think, but to each their own.

Mhm, I think this is more complicated than it looks. The LF today isn't a direct Linux kernel funding body and more an umbrella for open-source governance (infrastructure, events, certification, security work, to name a few). So the other 97% are not necessarily wasted. Also, many kernel developers are paid outside of the LF by companies like Red Hat, Google, AMD, SUSE, Microsoft. So in reality there is alot more cash flowing towards Linux kernel development. A better/sharper criticism would be that the LF has become an industry consortium for "enterprise open source" or so, rather than a Linux-centered foundation. The counterpoint on the other Hand is that this founded infrastructure is exactly what allows large-scale open-source projects to function in the first place.

Corpos doing what corpos do better.

12% to AI

Yikes