Dirk and Linus discuss AI and kernel development [LWN.net]

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Dirk and Linus discuss AI and kernel development

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By Joe Brockmeier<br>May 25, 2026

OSSNA

Linus Torvalds does not enjoy giving talks, but he does consent to<br>the occasional on-stage conversation with Dirk Hohndel at Linux<br>Foundation events. The pair held the 30th of their fire-less fireside<br>chats during a keynote session on May 20, at the 2026 Open<br>Source Summit North America. Topics included 3D printing, guitar<br>pedals, the recent 7.1-rc4 release of the kernel, and Torvalds's<br>complicated relationship with AI tooling.

3D printing

Hohndel kicked off the conversation by saying that Torvalds is a<br>"huge fan of 3D printing", and that they owned the same model<br>of 3D printer. One of the things that is interesting about this space,<br>he said, is that "basically everything is open source". Another<br>thing that he and Torvalds have in common is a dislike of visual tools<br>for creating the 3D models; they both prefer OpenSCAD, which allows creating<br>models with a programming language instead. Hohndel wondered if<br>Torvalds had worked with OpenSCAD's code, or was simply a user of the<br>tool.

Torvalds said that he was just a user of the software; he enjoyed<br>describing things in text and treating 3D printing as programming. He<br>also liked that it produced a physical object, which was something he<br>didn't get from his work on the kernel. When he codes, though, he<br>prefers to be "really close to the hardware and work at a different<br>level". He had no desire to get involved in OpenSCAD as a project,<br>because it is so different from what he is used to coding.

Hohndel said that sometimes he would want to fix a bug in an<br>application, "and then I look at the code and I realize I have<br>absolutely no idea how I would fix that". It was a wonderful<br>learning experience, he said, finding that there were so many things<br>he knew nothing about but still enjoyed using.

Another interesting thing, he said, was that for many years<br>open-source tools were considered to be "maybe a little<br>clunkier", and proprietary tools were so much nicer; the<br>open-source applications for 3D printing, though, were "really<br>cool" and of high quality. Torvalds replied that "we're<br>actually past the point where people think that open source is just<br>for engineers".

Guitar hero

Torvalds was introduced by Linux Foundation CEO Jim Zemlin as the<br>creator of two industry-shaping tools: the Linux kernel and the Git<br>version-control system. However, Hohndel said that he should really be<br>credited for three major innovations since Torvalds had created<br>the Subsurface dive-log<br>application as well. That may, in fact, need to be revised upward to<br>four with "a guitar-effects pedal written by the one and only Linus<br>Torvalds".

The project<br>is available on GitHub and includes all of the software as well as<br>necessary schematics, available under the GPLv2, to build a working<br>effects pedal. Torvalds cautioned that interested users would have to<br>manufacture the device before playing with it. While it would be<br>possible to place the components by hand, he recommended sending the<br>design files to a printed-circuit board (PCB) manufacturer instead. He<br>had started doing it by hand, but decided that it was too fiddly and<br>it would be better to let the professionals do it. "If you're into<br>guitar pedals or into music and want a really bad guitar pedal, you<br>can now make one yourself".

Hohndel said that he was an early beta tester of the guitar pedal<br>and declared "it's not bad, and of course there's a 3D-printed<br>housing for it and everything. It's really fun." Torvalds<br>deadpanned that he would "change the world of music, too".

Impact of AI tools

Steering the conversation around to Torvalds's first hobby project,<br>Hohndel noted that Linux 7.1-rc4 had<br>recently been released. "My usual questions, 'what's going on? How<br>are we doing?'" Torvalds responded that the kernel has had the<br>same process now for about 20 years, since switching to Git. "I<br>used to say that it's all working fine, and it's smooth sailing, it's<br>steady progress. And then, about half a year ago, things<br>changed." He said that in the past six months, the kernel has seen<br>a lot more commits, and about 20% more commits for the past two kernel<br>releases than the project had seen for many years.

His first theory was that companies were pushing to get code into<br>the 7.0 release, because it's a .0 release and a similar thing had<br>happened...