Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised May 27, 2026

Linux Kernel Developers Summit

The Linux Kernel Developers Summit is an annual gathering of the top Linux kernel developers. Attendance at the summit is by invitation only, and the conference was first held in San Jose in March 2001. It was organized by Theodore Ts'o to provide a face to face venue for kernel developers to discuss current and future issues surrounding Linux kernel development, and was initially run by Usenix and then VA Linux's Open Source Developer's Network. Subsequent summits from 2002 to 2006 were held the two days prior to the Ottawa Linux Symposium in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada at the same conference center with Usenix providing all of the logistical support. The 2007 Kernel Summit was held on September 4–6, 2007 at the DeVere University Arms Hotel in Cambridge, England, and was the first time the summit was moved outside of North America.

Last revised
May 27, 2026
Read time
≈ 6 min
Length
1,384 w
Citations
47
Source
Wikipedia ↗

The Linux Kernel Developers Summit (also known as the Linux Kernel Maintainer Summit) is an annual gathering of the top Linux kernel developers. Attendance at the summit is by invitation only, and the conference was first held in San Jose in March 2001.1 It was organized by Theodore Ts'o to provide a face to face venue for kernel developers to discuss current and future issues surrounding Linux kernel development, and was initially run by Usenix and then VA Linux's Open Source Developer's Network.2 Subsequent summits from 2002 to 2006 were held the two days prior to the Ottawa Linux Symposium in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada at the same conference center with Usenix providing all of the logistical support. The 2007 Kernel Summit was held on September 4–6, 2007 at the DeVere University Arms Hotel in Cambridge, England, and was the first time the summit was moved outside of North America.

Content

The discussions at the kernel summit have traditionally been highly technical, with a focus on issues that were not getting resolution via electronic mail. In recent years, however, the summit has been gradually focusing more on higher level development process issues.3 An example of an important development process decision made at the kernel summit was the decision to move to a rolling stable 2.6 kernel every few months, instead of the formerly used model using a 1–2-year development cycle.4 The Linux Technical Advisory Board is elected at a bird-of-a-feather session at the Linux Kernel Summit.5

The summit usually hosts around 80 attendees.

Summit locations

Date Host country Location Website Summary
March 30–31, 2001  United States Hyatt Hotel, San Jose, CA 6 78
June 24–25, 2002  Canada Ottawa Congress Centre, Ottawa, Ontario 9 101112
July 21–22, 2003  Canada Ottawa Congress Centre, Ottawa, Ontario 13 14
July 19–20, 2004  Canada Ottawa Congress Centre, Ottawa, Ontario 15 16
July 18–19, 2005  Canada Ottawa Congress Centre, Ottawa, Ontario 17 1819
July 16–18, 2006  Canada Ottawa Congress Centre, Ottawa, Ontario 20 21
September 4–6, 2007  United Kingdom DeVere University Arms Hotel, Cambridge 22 23
September 15–16, 2008  United States Portland State University, Portland, OR 24
October 18–20, 2009  Japan Akihabara Convention Hall, Akihabara, Tokyo 25 26
November 1–2, 2010  United States Hyatt Regency Cambridge, Cambridge, MA 27 28
October 23–25, 2011  Czech Republic Clarion Congress Hotel, Prague, Czech Republic 29 30
August 27–29, 2012  United States San Diego, CA N/A 31
October 23–25, 2013  United Kingdom Edinburgh, United Kingdom 32 33
August 18–20, 2014  United States Sheraton Chicago, Chicago, IL 34 35
October 26–28, 2015  South Korea Conrad Hotel, Seoul, South Korea 36 37
October 31–November 1, 2016  United States Santa Fe Convention Center, Santa Fe, NM 38
October 24–26, 2017  Czech Republic Hilton Prague, Prague Czech Republic 39
November 13–15, 2018  Canada Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre, Vancouver, Canada 40
September 12, 2019  Portugal Corinthia Hotel Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal 41
September 24, 2021 Virtual 42
September 15, 2022  Ireland Dublin, Ireland 43
November 16, 2023  United States Richmond, Virginia 44
September 17, 2024  Austria Vienna, Austria 45 46
December 18, 2025  Japan Tokyo 47
References

References

  1. Dilio, Michelle (April 2001). "Linux Coders Offer Kernel Wishes". Wired. Archived from the original on November 4, 2010. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  2. DiBona, Chris (April 2001). "The Linux Kernel Summit". Linux Journal. Archived from the original on June 19, 2005. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  3. Corbet, Jonathan (August 2007). "Looking ahead to Kernel Summit 2007". LinuxWorld. Archived from the original on November 18, 2007. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  4. Galli, Peter (August 2005). "Torvalds: How to Keep Linux Kernel on Course". eWeek. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  5. Andrews, Jeremy (August 2007). "Linux: Linux Foundation Technical Advisory Board". KernelTrap. Archived from the original on October 18, 2007.
  6. "Linux 2.5 Developer's Summit". Usenix. Archived from the original on January 20, 2012. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  7. Farrow, Rik (April 2001). "Linux 2.5 Kernel Developers Summit" (PDF). Login. Usenix. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 21, 2011. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  8. Corbet, Jonathan (April 2001). "The Linux 2.5 kernel summit". Linux Weekly News. Eklektix. Archived from the original on November 3, 2007. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  9. "2002 Linux Kernel Developers Summit". Usenix. Archived from the original on January 20, 2012. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  10. Sharp, David (August 2002). "2002 Linux Kernel Developers Summit" (PDF). Login. Usenix: 88–91. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 10, 2011. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  11. Corbet, Jonathan (August 2002). "The Ottawa Kernel Summit, Day One". Linux Weekly News. Eklektix. Archived from the original on November 10, 2007. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  12. Corbet, Jonathan (August 2002). "The Ottawa Kernel Summit, Day Two". Linux Weekly News. Eklektix. Archived from the original on May 16, 2008. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  13. "2003 Linux Kernel Developers Summit". Usenix. Archived from the original on January 20, 2012. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  14. Corbet, Jonathan (July 2003). "The 2003 Linux Kernel Developers Summit". Linux Weekly News. Eklektix. Archived from the original on July 25, 2008. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  15. "2004 Linux Kernel Developers Summit". Usenix. Archived from the original on January 20, 2012. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  16. Corbet, Jonathan (July 2004). "The 2004 Linux Kernel Developers Summit". Linux Weekly News. Eklektix. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  17. "2005 Linux Kernel Developers Summit". Usenix. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  18. Corbet, Jonathan (October 2005). "2005 Linux Kernel Developers Summit" (PDF). Login. Usenix: 55–57. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 12, 2019. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  19. Corbet, Jonathan (July 2005). "The 2005 Linux Kernel Developers Summit". Linux Weekly News. Eklektix. Archived from the original on November 24, 2007. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  20. "2006 Linux Kernel Developers Summit". Usenix. Archived from the original on June 8, 2011. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  21. Corbet, Jonathan (July 2006). "The 2006 Linux Kernel Developers Summit". Linux Weekly News. Eklektix. Archived from the original on August 20, 2007. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  22. "2007 Linux Kernel Developers Summit". Usenix. Archived from the original on January 20, 2012. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  23. Corbet, Jonathan (September 2007). "The 2007 Linux Kernel Developers Summit". Linux Weekly News. Eklektix. Archived from the original on November 6, 2007. Retrieved October 30, 2007.
  24. Corbet, Jonathan (September 2008). "The 2008 Linux Kernel Developers Summit". Linux Weekly News. Eklektix. Archived from the original on December 23, 2008. Retrieved December 3, 2008.
  25. "9th Annual Linux Kernel Summit". Archived from the original on August 31, 2009. Retrieved October 23, 2009.
  26. Corbet, Jonathan (October 19, 2009). "The 2009 Linux Kernel Summit". Linux Weekly News. Eklektix. Archived from the original on December 25, 2009. Retrieved October 23, 2009.
  27. "Kernel Summit 2010". Archived from the original on August 2, 2010. Retrieved January 22, 2011.
  28. Corbet, Jonathan (November 2, 2010). "The 2010 Kernel Summit". Linux Weekly News. Eklektix. Archived from the original on November 25, 2010. Retrieved January 22, 2011.
  29. "Kernel Summit 2011". Archived from the original on November 13, 2017. Retrieved September 29, 2011.
  30. "The 2011 Kernel Summit". Linux Weekly News. October 24, 2011. Archived from the original on September 11, 2016. Retrieved September 20, 2016.
  31. "The 2012 Kernel Summit". Linux Weekly News. Eklektix. August 29, 2012. Archived from the original on October 14, 2013. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  32. "Kernel Summit 2013". Archived from the original on October 7, 2017. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
  33. "The 2013 Kernel Summit". Linux Weekly News. October 29, 2013. Archived from the original on October 12, 2014. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
  34. "Kernel Summit 2014". Archived from the original on December 8, 2017. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
  35. "The 2014 Kernel Summit". Linux Weekly News. August 20, 2014. Archived from the original on September 6, 2014. Retrieved August 26, 2014.
  36. "Kernel Summit 2015". Archived from the original on October 5, 2016. Retrieved September 20, 2016.
  37. "The 2015 Kernel Summit". Linux Weekly News. November 1, 2015. Archived from the original on October 6, 2016. Retrieved September 20, 2016.
  38. "Linux Kernel Summit 2016". Retrieved December 22, 2025.
  39. "Linux Kernel Summit 2017". Retrieved December 22, 2025.
  40. "Linux Kernel Summit 2018". Archived from the original on September 30, 2024. Retrieved November 24, 2024.
  41. "Linux Kernel Summit 2019".
  42. "Linux Kernel Maintainer Summit 2021". Retrieved November 24, 2024.
  43. "Linux Kernel Maintainer Summit 2022". Retrieved November 24, 2024.
  44. "Linux Kernel Maintainer Summit 2023". Retrieved November 24, 2024.
  45. "Linux Kernel Maintainer Summit 2024". Retrieved December 22, 2025.
  46. Corbet, Jonathan (September 19, 2024). "The 2024 Maintainers Summit". Linux Weekly News. Retrieved December 22, 2025.
  47. "Linux Kernel Maintainer Summit". LF Events. Retrieved December 22, 2025.