Linux Kernel Developer Ted Ts’o Joins Linux Foundation as Chief Platform Strategist

SAN FRANCISCO, December 4, 2007 – The Linux Foundation (LF), the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced that Linux kernel filesystem maintainer Ted Ts’o is joining the organization as a Fellow and chief platform strategist. Ts’o is one of the most highly regarded members of the Linux and open source community and will contribute his leadership experience working with a broad set of Linux technologies to the LF’s technical efforts, including the Linux Standard Base (LSB).

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to see Ted join the LF,†said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation. “There are very few people in the world with the unique background and breath of experience that Ted holds in both Linux and enterprise computing. He was the first North American kernel developer, a pioneer in Linux file systems and one of the original organizers of the Linux Standard Base. His experience will be an invaluable addition to our team.â€Â

“I believe in the Linux Foundation’s mission of rallying developers, users and industry members around one goal: the growth of Linux,†said Ted Ts’o, chief platform strategist at The Linux Foundation. “I’m looking forward to continuing the LSB and other Linux Foundation initiatives to make the Linux platform even more competitive to the benefit of the entire Linux community.”

Since 2001, Ts’o has worked as a senior technical staff member at IBM where he most recently led a worldwide team to create an enterprise-level real-time Linux solution. He will return to IBM after this two-year fellowship at The Linux Foundation.

Ts’o has been recognized throughout the Linux and open source communities for his contributions to free software. Just this year, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) recognized him with the Award for the Advancement of Free Software.

Ts’o is also a Linux filesystem maintainer, a role in which he maintains several packages including e2fsprogs. He currently serves on the board of USENIX, is the founder and chair of the annual Linux Kernel Developers’ Summit and regularly teaches tutorials on Linux and other open source software. Ts’o was project leader for Kerberos, a network authentication system used by Red Hat Enteprise Linux, SUSE Enterprise Linux and Microsoft Windows. He was also a member of Security Area Directorate for the Internet Engineering Task Force where he chaired the IP Security (ipsec) Working Group and was a founding board member of the Free Standards Group (FSG). Ts’o studied computer science at MIT, where he received his degree in 1990.

Ts’o will work with the engineering teams of the Linux Foundation as well as its Technical, End User and Vendor Advisory Councils. He joins other LF fellows, which include or have included Steve Hemminger, Andrew Morton, Linus Torvalds and Andrew Tridgell.

About the Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux. Founded in 2007, the Linux Foundation sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and is supported by leading Linux and open source companies and developers from around the world. The Linux Foundation promotes, protects and standardizes Linux by providing unified resources and services needed for open source to successfully compete with closed platforms. For more information, please visit www.linux-foundation.org.

Trademarks: The Linux Foundation and Linux Standard Base are trademarks of The Linux Foundation. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. Third party marks and brands are the property of their respective holders.