Greg Kroah-Hartman
Greg Kroah-Hartman is a prominent software engineer and Linux kernel developer, best known as a Fellow of the Linux Foundation and the primary maintainer of the kernel's stable and long-term support (LTS) branches. In January 2026, he received the Prize for Excellence in Open Source at the European Open Source Awards in Brussels for his outstanding contributions to open source software, particularly the stability and reliability of the Linux kernel. He oversees the release of stable kernel versions, co-maintains these branches with Sasha Levin to incorporate critical fixes, and ensures LTS kernels receive support for up to six years, contributing to the reliability of Linux across billions of devices, including Android systems.Additionally, he maintains several core kernel subsystems, such as USB, PCI, driver core, and sysfs, playing a pivotal role in the kernel's hardware integration and stability.
...Presented by the European Open Source Academy, this top prize recognised his decades of work maintaining the Linux kernel's stable and long-term support branches, ensuring critical bug fixes, security patches, and reliability across billions of devices worldwide, including critical systems in various sectors. The award jury highlighted his unglamorous but essential contributions to open source stability, describing his work as "unglamorous, relentless, and essential" and noting its impact on hospitals, banks, governments, and individuals relying on Linux...
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