Greg Kroah-Hartman - DeveloPassion

# Greg Kroah-Hartman ![[50 Resources/51 Attachments/51.03 Public/2026-02-12 Greg Kroah-Hartman.jpg|400]] Greg Kroah-Hartman is a key [[Linux]] kernel developer and the maintainer of the stable kernel branch. As a Fellow at the [[Linux Foundation]], he is one of the most prolific contributors to the Linux kernel, second only to [[Linus Torvalds]] in terms of changesets accepted. His work ensures that millions of devices worldwide run reliable, security-patched kernels. Beyond the stable branch, Kroah-Hartman maintains several critical kernel subsystems including the USB stack, driver core, staging tree, and TTY layer. He created the staging tree to help new drivers mature into the mainline kernel, lowering the barrier for hardware vendors to contribute. His pragmatic approach and extensive documentation have made him a mentor figure in the kernel community. ## Key Contributions | Area | Description | |------|-------------| | **Stable Kernel** | Maintains all stable/longterm kernel releases with security and bug fixes | | **USB Subsystem** | Primary maintainer of Linux USB stack | | **Driver Core** | Maintains the unified device model and sysfs | | **Staging Tree** | Created staging area for drivers not yet ready for mainline | | **TTY Layer** | Maintains terminal subsystem | | **Kernel Security** | Rapid response to security vulnerabilities | ## Career Timeline - **1990s**: Began contributing to Linux kernel - **1999**: Became USB subsystem maintainer - **2002**: Started driver core/sysfs work - **2005**: Joined Novell/SUSE as kernel developer - **2008**: Created the staging tree - **2012**: Joined Linux Foundation as Fellow - **Present**: Continues as stable kernel maintainer ## Philosophy Kroah-Hartman advocates for: - **Upstream first**: Get code into mainline kernel rather than maintaining forks - **Incremental improvement**: Small, reviewable patches over large changes - **Documentation**: Extensive kernel documentation and driver guides - **Security response**: Quick turnaround on CVE fixes for stable kernels ## References - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Kroah-Hartman - http://www.kroah.com/ - https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git ## Related - [[Linux]] - [[Linus Torvalds]] - [[Linux Foundation]] - [[Linux Kernel]] - [[Open Source]] ## Quotes  ## Books