Layoffs at OSDL?
Submitted by srlinuxx on Mon, 12/04/2006 - 13:47
According to sources, the Open Source Development Labs has laid off a significant chunk of its engineering staff.
Sources said the OSDL—the sponsor of Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel, and other key developers—on Dec. 4 laid off a sizable portion of its engineering staff in a move that the sources said left the OSDL's Beaverton, Ore., offices a "ghost town."
The layoffs include chief executive Stuart Cohen. The company didn't appoint a replacement, but put current chief financial officer Mike Temple in charge of everyday operations as chief operating officer. Following the restructuring the organization employs a staff of 19.
The group also employs several open source developers including Linux creator Linus Torvalds. While it remains to provide a "safe haven" for Torvalds as well as other key open source developers, OSDL is expected to abandon projects that developed Linux distributions addressing niche markets or applications such as carrier grade, mobile and desktop Linux versions.
Stuart Cohen will join OVP Venture Partners, a venture capital investment firm, where he will "explore open source joint development using best practices in collaboration and building communities," Cohen said.
Linus was never known to be a manager of projects ?
Linux did the original Linux and depended on open source community to work out all the problems and supply the ideas of Linux features.
So, the layoff is expected, when kernel 2.6.x looks like it is completed.
Kernel 2.8.x will save Linus' job without Andrew Morton, who left for Google. Kernel 2.8.x, being hard realtime, will share many markets with opensolaris.