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Alan Cox Leaves Red Hat
ruphus13 writes "Alan Cox — one of the lead Linux kernel developers at Red Hat — is leaving the company after 10 years and is heading to Intel, where he can focus on more low-level development tasks. Some are speculating whether this is indicative of a shift to a more 'application-centric' vision at Red Hat. From the article: 'Red Hat is integrating more application related, user- and enterprise-centric tools into its well-established "low-level," "core" development and support tools. It'd be more worrisome if Red Hat neglected to strike out in this direction. Cox was with Red Hat for ten years, and regardless of any suspected change of course within the company, that's a fair amount of time.'"
I wish Alan the best in his new position. Redhat have lost a great developer, and Intel have gained a fantastic resource. It's also great to see that the leaving was very amicable as well. This should be a win-win for Linux as a whole.
- This sig deliberately left blank. Nothing to see, move along.
Where does there always have to be speculation, from completely uninformed people? From my little knowledge of Alan Cox, from mailing lists, he always seems like the kind of guy who likes the lower-level details, and I imagine that few companies will be more interested in tweaking and improving the low levels than Intel. If they saw his obvious talent, and offered him a better job at better pay, then why not move? Alan Cox leaving Redhat doesn't have to say anything bad about them, maybe it says something good about Intel, and the things they are getting more involved in?
Combination - fun iPhone puzzling
Who's he?
Doesn't mention what type of hardware he's going to be working with, though.
General? Or are we going to see a jump in quality in Linux support of Intel WiFi/VGA/CPU at the exclusion of others. Anyone know how software development works at Intel?
No tyrant thrives when every subject says no.
If he gets a higher salary, why not? People have been motivated for less.
If the Intel position allows Cox to do more of the type of development that interests him, or simply offers a different view from the cafeteria windows...
As an Intel employee, I have to say that if you're choosing to work at Intel for the view or the cafeteria, you have made an incredibly poor life choice.
When you look at it, Red Hat is the wrong place to develop drivers. They should be developed by the vendors of the drivers, not the O/S packager.
It has been necessary so far to develop drivers at Red Hat simply to bootstrap the O/S. But now, Linux is becoming more popular every year, most enterprises have plans to deploy Linux in annually increasing scopes, and the "upward spiral" that Bill Gates (ghost-)wrote about 10 years ago in "The Road Ahead" is happening for the GNU/Linux system.
Red Hat doesn't develop devices. Device vendors develop devices, and it's their expertise in how their own devices function that makes them best qualified to write device drivers for the whatever O/S.
This move is really more a reflection of the continuing maturity of the Linux Operating System!
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
what with all the juvenile and moronic troll posts on /. today.
Damn. I remember back when this place actually had posts that discussed technical merits of issues.
Oblig: /get-off-of-my-lawn
Could anyone speculate about what his compensation was like?
I always wondered how much folks like Allan Cox are paid.
I mean...they do low level coding that I will never be able to do.
So what is the salary like in jobs like these?
I first stumbled on Slashdot ten years ago when Alan Cox mentioned in his online diary (a novelty in those days) that it was nice that even Slashdot were carrying it as a story.
I knew Alan from my uni days when I heard the outrageous rumour that SUCS (the comp.soc.) were trying to put real Unix onto a PC.
What I have observed about Alan Cox in the lkml:
1. Does not buy into hero worship of kernel developers no matter how senior.
2. Does not get nasty when outsiders address him in the mailing list.
3. Is a champion of 'perfect is the enemy of the good' principle.
4. Does not froth at the mouth when someone mentions business reasons for needing a particular addition or change.
There are many on that list with big names that stumble on one or more of the above.
My guess is, a bit north of $100K. The top of the engineering ladder is not all that high, and gurus don't make all that much more than bumblers with equal years of experience. (I'm not talking about RedHat in particular, just my observations of engineering in general.)
Just kidding. But it's perfectly reasonable that, when a company "insider" leaves, people start questioning whether they know something everyone else doesn't.
If, for example, we start seeing a flight of high level people from Red Hat, that's a pretty solid indication things are turning sour.
It's perfectly resonable to question. Even when it's a company Slashdot loves unconditionally.
As a Red Hat employee, I must that we generally get a view of either the side of another building or a swamp, at least here in the USA.
That someone on the Internet actually wrote 'by the way' instead of 'btw'.
That's good money in this economy. I work in the health-care field; the money is not all that bad but one has to "learn" to live with all kinds of crap.
Back stabbing by fellow employees and the fact that you are not appreciated are quite common. Members of the public appreciate the doctors more.
It is the case although nurses and those close to patients know more about the patient than the doctors, and doctors normally go by nurse's opinions. I guess it comes with the territory.
I would assume that because very few folks understand low level code that Allan works with, he gets little trouble from superiors.
That's good money in this economy.
It's decent money (well, until inflation rears its ugly head soon, which it may or may not do), but it's not great. But the bad thing about it, as the previous poster noted, is that it's not much more than the average bumbler gets. In engineering, it's pretty easy to get $80-90k with relatively little experience, or with a not-so-great track record of performance, just by moving around a little. If you're a star performer, in fact, you'd be lucky to get raises sufficient to make much more than new hires who left their previous job because they didn't get any raises (i.e. not great performers), and the new company wants to pay them "market rate". Typically, you'll only match the new hires with your raises. So what, exactly, is the incentive to be a star performer? There is none. You can be a total slacker instead, just change jobs every few years, and do just as well as the guys putting in 90 hours/week and doing the work of several lesser engineers.
It is the case although nurses and those close to patients know more about the patient than the doctors, and doctors normally go by nurse's opinions. I guess it comes with the territory.
What from I read and hear from family who used to be in the health-care field, nurses have so much trouble with being underappreciated and underpaid and overworked (such as being ordered to lift 300lb patients), that there aren't that many people willing to go into that field any more (just like engineering). As a result, hospitals are desperate to hire nurses, but of course they're not willing to raise their pay.
And what, exactly, does that leave? Desktop gaming?
This is okay. Everyone that works at RH acts like a Cox.
When you look at it, Red Hat is the wrong place to develop drivers. They should be developed by the vendors of the drivers, not the O/S packager. ... This move is really more a reflection of the continuing maturity of the Linux Operating System!
God help us if linux gets as, ahem, MATURE as Windows. Microsoft's crappy OS code is only exceeded by the unbelievably crappy driver code turned out by OEMs.
Tracking down (bug-ridden) drivers for everything is the single factor that makes Windows' out of box experience a living Hell (And accepting them only on floppies is the single factor that will eventually kill off XP).
The contrast with linux is eye opening to former benighted Windows users. Not only are all your drivers right there, but all the apps you need are a (free) click away.
Anyway, it's not OS packegers who develop linux drivers; its kernel developers - who are exactly the people with the skills to do the best job.
He was writing his diary as a redhat employee since 1997. Too bad he got caught up with that welsh fad & then the business school fad of the early 2000's. Hopefully he realizes the value of low level programming again.
that he'll finally have to step foot inside the USA
Hey some of us young 'uns in SUCS would like to hear more about the old days of the 90s. If you've got a moment hop on by to the SUCS@20 site or drop by Milliways...
One of the nice benefits of having driver source available is that the kernel developers can fix them if they understand the device itself. The original designer of the device is always in the best position to write at least the initial driver code.
One of the big rules in kernel development is that "if you break it, you have to fix it."
Having a good-quality original driver from the manufacturer means that the driver will be ported to new kernel versions, and any incompatibilities introduced are fixed by the person on the kernel team who made them break.
Don't worry, Alan knows the value of programming. One can see the motives behind his obtaining an MBA as an example of learning more about the business environment (and do you know what the topic for his MBA thesis was?)
I'm starting to wonder whether you spoke to the same Alan I know : ). Alan would have surely mentioned that he prefers using joe as his editor because it supports WordStar key bindings...
Could you format your troll post properly next time? I wouldn't have read that block of text even if it was +5 informative.
In Windows' case, the drivers are binary.
But in the Linux world, they will be (already are) largely open source. If a vendor puts out a crappy driver, people who know better can submit patches, and people who don't know will quickly learn who to avoid.
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
How about the desktop as a total? I guess some can't see past the gaming/server arena. Step outside your server room sometime, if you're even in one, and take a look about at the few hundred machines that your handful of servers support. People who can't see the trees for the forest, so to speak.
I don't know how much Alan Cox will earn, but I guess it'll be a very decent pay for someones living in California and he'll work at home at Swansa, which makes the pay quite good indeed.
Of course he deserves it.
Could you format your troll post properly next time? I wouldn't have read that block of text even if it was +5 informative.
My only comment is: Wow. I wish I had enough spare time to write something just half that long. Where in the world does anyone get time to write enough gobbledygook to make my scrollbar move a sizeable distance to get past it?
Shit! He even single-spaced it!
Teacher: Little Johnny, your paper is 5 pages long with 50000 words, as required, but the other three quarters of the assignment was to include content. F+ (the + is for the proper length).
Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
What from I read and hear from family who used to be in the health-care field, nurses have so much trouble with being underappreciated and underpaid and overworked (such as being ordered to lift 300lb patients), that there aren't that many people willing to go into that field any more (just like engineering). As a result, hospitals are desperate to hire nurses, but of course they're not willing to raise their pay.
Which IMHO is a major contributor to healthcare costs.
Highly, and in many cases, over-educated doctors make most of the money and have legal & professional roadblocks preventing nurses from doing a lot of the work that requires a "doctor".
I think we'd be better off with nurses adding an extra year of training/education and getting much wider latitude to "practice medicine" while having fewer doctors, mainly specialists.
(And accepting them only on floppies is the single factor that will eventually kill off XP)
While I agree with your sentiments about drivers being one of the biggest issues with Windows, what in the world are you talking about here? Unless you are referring to install-time storage drivers, I have never needed to use a floppy to install drivers in XP. Plus, with storage drivers you can create a new install CD with the drivers included.
Said, "It's just like dice but it's got more sides And it tells me who lives and who dies"
I remember when I first started reading Slashdot nearly ten years ago, you got information somewhat promptly after it happened. But I read this story last week somewhere else. I notice this has become a pattern in recent years. Yeah, there have been dupes and the occasional story on an article from six months ago, or an old concept that is presented here as a "revelation", but I've noticed that it's been getting worse and worse. Or maybe I just read better news sources outside of Slashdot.
There are worse things in life then having OEM engineers writing drivers who happen to be named Alan Cox.
I Browse at +4 Flamebait
Open Source Sysadmin
Why do they name the drivers? And why Alan Cox? Is it one of those easter eggs where naming your file a certain way does something?
You can be a total slacker instead, just change jobs every few years, and do just as well as the guys putting in 90 hours/week and doing the work of several lesser engineers.
Once you get to this point you either have to go into management or consulting (or both), or else you coast along awhile until you snap or die..
Alternately, if you have a good idea and 6-12 months of living expenses saved, entrepreneurship, but that's even _more_ work..
Not unless they've based themselves somewhere near Mumbles is my bet.
Working for them, maybe.
This lovely, ugly joke is brought to you by the Laugharne Stout Drinkers Forum.
Once you get to this point you either have to go into management or consulting (or both), or else you coast along awhile until you snap or die..
Perhaps, but putting in 90 hours/week for too long will make most people snap or die too.
Alternately, if you have a good idea and 6-12 months of living expenses saved, entrepreneurship, but that's even _more_ work..
Yes, but for some people, it's not the work that's the problem, but the amount of work versus the reward. Why work extra-hard if you're not going to be rewarded for it? People like that can still make great entrepreneurs, since at least there, they're their own boss, and have a huge potential reward if they succeed.
Since Ninnle is the true home of cutting edge Linux, that's where he's chosen to go. The Intel thing is just a smokescreen.
Mm-hmm. And when everything moves to centrally-hosted thin/web-client apps? Like Office?
I wonder if he would put his MBA in good use by founding his own startup and what products we could expect from such a startup.
So what, exactly, is the incentive to be a star performer? There is none. You can be a total slacker instead, just change jobs every few years, and do just as well as the guys putting in 90 hours/week and doing the work of several lesser engineers.
Work ethic comes to mind.
I don't know for sure but one of the things I read about Intel is that it has a very rigid suit&tie corporate culture, similar or stricter than at IBM.
I met Alan Cox once at a conference and he didn't quite look the type to work in a tightly controlled cubicle - so why choose Intel? OTOH he did look reasonable and adjustable.
Maybe the pay raise is nice...
-- Sig down
From the article: 'Red Hat is integrating more application related, user- and enterprise-centric tools into its well-established "low-level," "core" development and support tools.
"Nice use" of "quotation marks". I'm "glad" you didn't "overuse them".
And when I look at the few hundred machines you see, I see hordes of desktop support techs and gaming nerds who wannabe 'real IT' people.
no thanks buddy, I'll play games at home
Shame you didn't see fit to provide your name. It would be nice in a few years to see how you've been humbled.
My guess is north of $200K. Real gurus like Alan Cox don't normally fit into engineering ladders. They are worth more than that just in advertising to Intel.
Alan is an awesome guy. He might just want to change his life into something different. After all, this is normal for creative people.
Or perhaps he got sick of the bug reports. I wrote him a bug report once. He responded on the same day, to ask for more information. I did send him the debugger output and he kept asking for more info until he got what he wanted.
This process might be very frustrating to a talented man of his age.
So you think it's ethical to work really hard for no extra compensation?
If so, I've got a lot of work I could assign you. I don't have any money to pay you, but if your work ethic is high, you should be happy to take on this work for no pay. Please let me know what your skills are, so I can provide you with suitable work.
I'm curious to see if he stops wearing the red hat all the time and starts wearing something like a Stetson with "Intel Inside" embroidered on it.
Just disrupt the deflector shield with a tachyon burst.
For the CS engineering ladder maybe. But I know of quite a few that have topped over 200k. They work for chip manufacturers.
I'm surprised that we haven't seen Alan chime in himself on his plans and reasons for the move. He does tend to lurk around here a bit ;)
In engineering, it's pretty easy to get $80-90k with relatively little experience, or with a not-so-great track record of performance, just by moving around a little. If you're a star performer, in fact, you'd be lucky to get raises sufficient to make much more than new hires who left their previous job because they didn't get any raises (i.e. not great performers), and the new company wants to pay them "market rate". Typically, you'll only match the new hires with your raises. So what, exactly, is the incentive to be a star performer? There is none. You can be a total slacker instead, just change jobs every few years, and do just as well as the guys putting in 90 hours/week and doing the work of several lesser engineers.
This is absolutely true... where I work, the pay ranges that I know of for all north american sites, as of last year, were:
MTS: 103k-168k
SMTS: 115k-187k
I'd say roughly MTS means 7+ years of experience, and SMTS means 9+ years, give or take.
Of the people that were brought in at their current level, most (say around 80%) are around the median of those ranges, tending to be a bit higher. Of the people that were promoted to those levels, most are in the bottom 25% of the salary range.
Now, there is certainly significant correlation between compensation and performance, but only when looking within each of the {hired, promoted} groups. But when looking at the whole group (everyone reporting under our director at least), there are several cases of people ranked in the bottom 25% of performers having salaries 30-40% higher than the top ranked engineers. Just from the salary data, it's very easy to tell who's been around for a while.
And you're right, there's no incentive to be a top performer really, other than having a better shot at escaping the layoff axe when it comes around...
"onward!" cried the copper man, little knowing brass corrupts...
I'm not a programmer, I haven't hacked on drivers, but I've still modified PCI identifier tables to make my hardware work a couple of times in the last ten years. I love text configuration files.
Put identity in the browser.
Thank you for that bit of data and your perspective which confirms my own experiences.
And you're right, there's no incentive to be a top performer really, other than having a better shot at escaping the layoff axe when it comes around...
Even that's not much of an incentive, really. If your company is doing so badly they're laying off people (other than the very worst performers), do you really want to stick around? They probably have serious management problems, making working there a miserable experience even without the layoffs. So if you do get laid off, you can probably pretty easily find another job that pays a lot more.
-----I know when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious.
Are you talking about a biscuit or Alan's penis?
Bet the IRS will be stalking him to collect his incum tax.
Kick ass open source Larrabee drivers would rock...
He's got quite a bit of notoriety and he's among the top echelon of linux developers. He's also got unique skills and experience that's extremely difficult to replace. I know a few people with fewer qualifications at around 150k-175k. He'd have to be well into 200k range. I'd imagine 225-275k.
Camping on quad since 1996.
Wondering why he is not changing his career to management after completing his MBA
I'd like to buy homeland for our 10 million people. http://twitter.com/mahadiga
Maybe you got stuck in the 90's, if you didn't see how the web is taking over the desktop. Close your Windows 95 machine and come with us to the futuristic world of the 21th century!
You didn't bother to cut out the reference to Jon Katz before pasting that ancient thing? Lame.
(Half of today's Slashdotters probably don't even know who that is.)
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.