Many people consider themselves a Linux kernel developer first, an employee second. Even when they enjoy their current job and like their employer, most of them tend to look at the employment relationship as something temporary, whereas their identity as a kernel developer is viewed as more permanent and more important. Although companies do sometimes influence the areas where their employees contribute, individuals have quite a bit of freedom in how they do the work. Many receive little direction for their day-to-day work, with a high degree of trust from their employers to do useful work. However, occasionally they are asked to do some specific piece of work or to take an interest in a particular area that is important for the company.
Many kernel developers also collaborate with their competitors on a regular basis, where they interact with each other as individuals without focusing on the fact that their employers compete with each other. This was something I saw a lot of when I was working at Intel, because our kernel developers worked with almost all of our major competitors.
Learn more in Dawn Fosters’ talk, Collaboration in Kernel Mailing Lists, at Open Source Summit EU, which will be held October 23-26 in Prague.
Read more at OpenSource.com
