Bonum Certa Men Certa

Linux Foundation Technical Advisory Board Has Election, But Google is Already Guaranteed Over 33.3% of the Seats ('Reserved' for It)

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Sep 06, 2024,
updated Sep 06, 2024

Jonathan Corbet

The title is not clickbait. It's totally factual.

That's Google. It has too much power/influence and it looks like a stacked panel.

Right now it has 4 out of 9 seats! How on Earth does that happen in a supposedly vendor-neutral Linux Foundation (LF)?

Microsoft's Christian Brauner, whose role is noted in the following, will soon leave the board.

Christian Brauner

That's Phoronix's Michael Larabel, sucking up to Microsoft and to Lennart Poettering (when Poettering formally joined Microsoft, like Miguel de Icaza had done years before him).

But anyway, Christian Brauner aside, Google is a more worrying force there.

The people last year: (screenshot captured in August 2023)

Linux Foundation Leadership Team's Technical Advisory Board: Google-Microsoft majority; Sasha Levin, Former Microsoft

It has not changed since then. It looks the same right now (in the official Web site).

And from the message sent by Corbet:

Note that there will be an "ask us anything" session with the current TAB
at the Linux Plumbers Conference; it is currently scheduled for 9:00 on
Friday, September 20.

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS
The TAB has ten members serving two-year terms; half of the board is elected each year. The members whose terms are expiring this year are:
- Christian Brauner - Kees Cook - Dave Hansen - Jakub Kicinski - Dan Williams
The members whose terms expire next year are:
- Jonathan Corbet - Greg Kroah-Hartman - Sasha Levin - Steve Rostedt - Ted Ts'o

So 3 from Google are staying, Intel goes the way of the dodo (despite its role in founding OSDL, an LF precursor of sorts), and LWN will maintain its conflict of interest.

From Corbet's Web site: (no comments there)

Call for candidates for the 2024 Linux Foundation TAB election

Let's wait and see who wins (or buys) a seat. The LF literally sells seats to companies. It's corrupt and it has no oversight.

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