The Linux Foundation has become a false fame for many years. It goes far beyond its steward roots in the Linux kernel, and has emerged as the vast umbrella outfit for 1,000 open source projects spanning cloud infrastructure, security, digital wallets, enterprise search, fintech, maps and more.
Last month, the OpenInfra Foundation (best known for OpenStack) was added to the stable, adding more cement as the “Foundation of Foundations” of the Linux Foundation.
The Linux Foundation emerged in 2007 from a fusion of two nonprofits focused on Linux. This is the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL) and the Free Standards Group (FSG). Among founding members of IBM, Intel, Oracle, and others, the foundation’s reason for existence was challenging the “closed” platform of the time.
“Computing is entering a world dominated by two platforms: Linux and Windows,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation (pictured above), at the time. “While windows are consistent while being managed under one roof, Linux offers freedom of choice, customization and flexibility without forcing customers to lock in with vendors.”
“Portfolio approach”
Zemlin has led the accusations for nearly 20 years at the Linux Foundation, overseeing the transition through technology waves such as mobile, cloud and, more recently, artificial intelligence. The evolution from Linux centrality to cover almost every technological nook and cranny reflects the way in which the technology itself is not stationary.
“Technology goes up and down. We don’t use iPods or floppy disks,” Zemlin explained to TechCrunch in an interview with Kubecon in London last week. “What I noticed early on was that if Linux Foundation becomes a permanent body for collective software development, we need to be able to bet on various forms of technology.”
This is what Zemlin calls the “portfolio approach,” and doesn’t rely on the success of a single product, just like how companies diversify. By combining multiple important projects under a single organization, the foundation can benefit from the vertically specific expertise of networking and automotive grade Linux. For example, leverages the broad range of expertise from copyright, patents, data privacy, cybersecurity, marketing and event organizations.
As businesses fight many regulations, such as EU AI law and cyber resilience, it is more important than ever that they can pool such resources across projects. Rather than individual projects have to fight just a good fight, they have the support of a corporate-like foundation, supported by some of the world’s largest companies.
“The Linux Foundation has experts working on industry industry efforts, but they are not lawyers, copyright experts or patent experts. They are not experts in large events or developer training,” says Zemlin. “And that’s why collective investment is important. While technology can be created in an agile way through technical leadership at the project level, across all of these projects, there’s a set of tools that create long-term sustainability.”
Last month, the coming of the Linux Foundation and OpenInfra Foundation highlighted this point. OpenStack is an open source, open standards-based cloud computing platform from Uninitiated and born from a joint project between Rackspace and NASA in 2010. In 2012, the OpenInfra Foundation surpassed OpenStack’s initial focus and then rebranded.
Zemlin has known Jonathan Bryce, CEO of the OpenInfra Foundation and one of the original OpenStack creators, for years. The two foundations have already collaborated on shared initiatives, including the Open Infrastructure Blueprint White Paper.
“We have realized that we can address some of the challenges we are currently seeing regarding regulatory compliance, cybersecurity risks and legal challenges related to open source. [open source] Zemlin said.
For the Linux Foundation, the merger brought experienced technical leads to fold. I worked in the industry and built products for use by some of the world’s largest organizations.
“It’s extremely difficult to hire technical collaboration efforts that have technical knowledge and understanding, how to grow ecosystems, how to run businesses, and the humility to manage people’s ultra-wide foundations without inserting their own ego,” Zemlin said. “The ability to guide influence — not many people have that skill.”
This portfolio approach extends beyond individual projects and foundations to more standalone regional entities. The latest variant was LF India, which was launched a few months ago, but the Linux Foundation introduced Japanese organizations a few years ago, but launched its European branch in 2022 to support the growing regulatory and digital sovereignty agenda across the bloc.
Housed a small number of projects, such as the Open Wallet Foundation, Linux Foundation Europe allows European members to cooperate with each other in isolation, earning mutual memberships in the broader Linux Foundation Global Outfit.
“In the name of digital sovereignty, if people want to work with other EU organizations or if the government wants to sponsor or award certain efforts, then only EU organizations may need to participate,” Zemlin said. “this [Linux Foundation Europe] You can needle them in two ways – they can work locally and have digital sovereignty, but they have not abandoned the global participation that makes open source so good. ”
Open Source AI Factor
AI is undoubtedly a major step change in both the technological realm and society, but it has pushed the concept of “open source” into mainstream fields in ways that traditional software doesn’t.
For example, Meta places the llama brand of AI models as open source, despite its little estimation. This also highlights some of the challenges of creating definitions of open source AI that everyone is happy with, showing AI models with a spectrum of “openness” in terms of access to code, datasets and commercial restrictions.
Last year, the Linux Foundation, home to the LF AI & Data Foundation, which houses around 75 projects, unveiled the Model Openness Framework (MOF), designed to bring a more nuanced approach to the definition of open source AI. The Open Source Initiative (OSI), a steward of “open source definitions,” used the framework in its own open source AI definitions.
“Most models lack the components needed for full understanding, auditing and reproducibility, and some model producers use restrictive licenses, while claiming that the model is “open source,” the author of the MOF’s paper wrote at the time.
Therefore, MOF provides a three-tier classification system that evaluates models of “integrity and openness” in terms of code, data, model parameters and documents.
Essentially, it’s a convenient way to establish which components are published and how “open” a model under which licenses it “opens”. Just because a model is not strictly “open source” in one definition does not mean that it is not open enough to develop safety tools that reduce hallucinations, for example. Zemlin says it is important to address these distinctions.
“I talk to a lot of people in the AI community. It’s a much broader technology practitioner. [compared to traditional software engineering]Zemlin said. What makes them irritate is that they’re a bit too pedantic on every layer. What they want is predictability and transparency, and understand what they actually get and use. ”
China’s AI Darling Deepseek also plays a major role in open source AI conversations, emerging with efficient open source models of performance, with incumbent players such as Openai Plan, which will release future models.
But according to Zemlin, this is all just another “moment” of open source.
“I think it’s good that people realize how valuable people are in modern technology development,” he said. “But there are these moments in open source. Linux was an open source moment where the open source community could create better operating systems for cloud computing and enterprise computing and communications than the world’s largest proprietary software company. AI is at the moment.
Reverse VC
A quick peek into the Linux Foundation’s series of projects revealed two broad categories: what we got, and what we created from within, just like the OpenInfra Foundation.
Acquiring an existing project or foundation may be easy, but it is undoubtedly important to start a new project from scratch as we strive to meet at least partially unmet needs. And this means that there is “art and science” for Zemlin to succeed.
“Science means that we have to create value for developers in these communities who are creating artifacts, the open source code that everyone wants. That’s what makes it all worth,” Zemlin said. “Art is trying to understand where there are new opportunities for open source to have a major impact on the industry.”
This is why Zemlin refers to what the Linux Foundation does as a similar thing to the “reverse venture capitalist” approach. VC is looking for a fit in the product market and the entrepreneurs you want to work with.
“Instead, we are suitable for the ‘project market’. Will this technology have a major impact on a particular industry? Can you bring together the right team of developers and leaders to achieve that? Is that market big enough? Is technology impactful? ” Zemlin said. “But instead of making a lot of money like a VC, we pass it all on.”
But even though that huge project has come to fruition, it doesn’t ignore the elephants in the room. LinuxFoundation is no longer everything about Linux, and for a long time. So, should we expect a rebranding to something a little more adorable but siege, like the foundations of open technology?
Do not hold your breath.
“When I wear a Linux Foundation Swag to a coffee shop, I often say someone “loves Linux” or “I used Linux in college,” says Zemlin. “It’s a powerful home brand and it’s pretty difficult to get away from it. Linux itself is a very positive idea and symbolizes a truly impactful, successful ‘open source’. ”
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