Frequently Asked Question

What does the Linux Foundation actually do?

The Linux Foundation is a US-based 501(c)(6) non-profit, founded in 2000 (as a merger of OSDL and the Free Standards Group in 2007), that hosts and funds collaborative open-source projects. It does not "own" Linux, the kernel copyright is held by thousands of individual contributors, but it employs Linus Torvalds and several senior maintainers (Greg Kroah-Hartman, Shuah Khan) as Fellows so they can work full time on the kernel without being tied to any one vendor.

Beyond the kernel, the Foundation hosts hundreds of other projects under its umbrella: Kubernetes and the CNCF, Node.js, Hyperledger, the Open Container Initiative, Automotive Grade Linux, the Yocto Project, and many more. It runs conferences (Open Source Summit, KubeCon, the Embedded Linux Conference), publishes training and certifications (LFCS, LFCE, CKA), and provides legal and infrastructure scaffolding so that companies that would otherwise be competitors can collaborate on shared code.