Torvalds Warns Linux Is Getting Bloated

Linux creator says his job has gotten easier as development process has improved, but more work needs to be done to improve Linux and reduce bloat.

As the Linux kernel is becoming increasingly larger and more complex, Linux founder Linus Torvalds says his job is getting easier. Speaking on a panel at the LinuxCon conference, Torvalds told the audience that kernel development model is working better now than ever.

But Torvalds added that there are still areas for improvement and provided a very pointed comment about the current size of the Linux kernel.

"We're getting bloated, yes it's a problem," Torvalds said. "I'd love to say we have a plan. I mean, sometimes it's a bit sad and we're definitely not the streamlined hyper-efficient kernel that I had envisioned 15 years ago. The kernel is huge and bloated."

"I don't spend all my time just hating people for sending me merge request that are hard to merge," Torvalds said. "For me, I need to have a happy feeling inside that I know what I'm merging. Whether it works or not another issue is a different issue."

For Torvalds, he said that he wanted to know that he was merging code that people actually want to have. He needs to have the explanations about what the code is doing in order to get happy feeling. Now that he has that feeling, he added that he is actually able to do some coding, though not a lot. Torvalds said he currently does approximately two code commits a week.
Torvalds' Motivation

During the panel session, Torvalds was asked by a member of the audience if his motivation for working on Linux has changed over the years. Torvalds responded that indeed his motivation has changed a lot over the years.

"It started out being all about the technology and really twiddling with the hardware and just learning and doing something cool in my basement … well, it wasn't my basement at the time it was my mother's basement," Torvalds said. "Eventually it became somewhat about the community and the fame. Hey, that was great."

Torvalds added that these days his motivation is all about the community. He noted that he defined the community, as being all about working and collaborating together with people.

"I really enjoy arguing, it's a big part of my life are these occasional flame threads that I love getting into and telling people they are idiots," Torvalds said. "All my technical problems were solved so long ago, that I don't even care. I don't do it for my own needs on my machine, I do it because it's interesting and I feel like I'm doing something worthwhile."



He added that whenever the kernel adds a new feature the problem gets worse. That said, he didn't think that features are being added too fast and said that developers are finding bugs quickly.

As the Linux kernel is becoming increasingly larger and more complex, Linux founder Linus Torvalds says his job is getting easier. Speaking on a panel at the LinuxCon conference, Torvalds told the audience that kernel development model is working better now than ever.

But Torvalds added that there are still areas for improvement and provided a very pointed comment about the current size of the Linux kernel.

"We're getting bloated, yes it's a problem," Torvalds said. "I'd love to say we have a plan. I mean, sometimes it's a bit sad and we're definitely not the streamlined hyper-efficient kernel that I had envisioned 15 years ago. The kernel is huge and bloated."

He added that whenever the kernel adds a new feature the problem gets worse. That said, he didn't think that features are being added too fast and said that developers are finding bugs quickly.