Jim Zemlin on taking a ‘portfolio approach’ to Linux Foundation projects

Summary

The Linux Foundation has become something of a misnomer through the years. It has extended far beyond its roots as the steward of the Linux kernel, emerging as a sprawling umbrella outfit for a thousand open source projects spanning cloud infrastructure, security, digital wallets, enterprise search, fintech, maps, and more. Last month, the OpenInfra Foundation — best known for OpenStack — became the latest addition to its stable, further cementing the Linux Foundation’s status as a “foundation of foundations.” The Linux Foundation emerged in 2007 from the amalgamation of two Linux-focused not-for-profits: the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) and the Free Standards Group (FSG). With founding members such as IBM, Intel, and Oracle, the Foundation’s raison d’être was challenging the “closed” platforms of that time — which basically meant doubling down on Linux in response to Windows’ domination. “Computing is entering a world dominated by two platforms: Linux and Windows,” the Linux Foundation’s executive director, Jim Zemlin (pictured above), said at the time. “While being managed under one roof has given Windows some consistency, Linux offers freedom of choice, customization and flexibility without forcing customers into vendor lock-in.” A “portfolio approach” Zemlin has led the charge at the Linux Foundation for some two decades, overseeing its transition through technological waves such as mobile, cloud, and — more recently — artificial intelligence. Its evolution from Linux-centricity to covering just about every technological nook is reflective of how technology itself doesn’t stand still — it evolves and, more importantly, it intersects. “Technology goes up and down — we’re not using iPods or floppy disks anymore,” Zemlin explained to TechCrunch in an interview during KubeCon in London last week. “What I realized early on was that if the Linux Foundation were to become an enduring body for collective software development, we needed to be able to bet on many d...