Dirk Hohndel Is No Longer Intel's Chief Linux/OSS Technologist

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Dirk Hohndel Is No Longer Intel's Chief Linux/OSS Technologist

Well this somehow slipped under our radar last week and comes as a big surprise... Dirk Hohndel has left Intel Corp after being their chief Linux and open-source technologist the past number of years...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Dirk-Hohndel-Left-Intel

[microcode]

I hope this doesn't signal something bad. I just bought a bunch of Intel hardware which might soon be functionally useless if they don't finish their work on i965.

[Adarion]

Oh, well. One can always speculate about reasons. But sometimes it can also just be someone looking for a new field of tech, a new challenge, a change of surroundings after several years at the same company. Or the competition looking for someone with skills via headhunters and making them a good offer.
Time might show.

[bkor]

As the only thing he could ever say about GNOME was always super negative (even during e.g. shared desktop summit), not sorry to see him go.

[schmidtbag]

I hope this doesn't signal something bad. I just bought a bunch of Intel hardware which might soon be functionally useless if they don't finish their work on i965.

Ok, several problems:
1. That's a serious overstatement. If you're already using your hardware and it works, it will never be "functionally useless" or even "mostly useless" in the foreseeable future.
2. Dirk probably doesn't do much development at all. He is replaceable, and there are still plenty of active developers.
3. At this point, Intel's backing isn't a necessity anymore. Mesa itself is almost 100% complete. Besides, look at nouveau. That's almost entirely community driven and it is making some tremendous progress. Worst case scenario, if Intel ditched Linux entirely, you'd have to wait a little longer for newer GPUs to get driver support. Again, consider nouveau and that wouldn't be long of a wait. Intel's hardware is dramatically simpler, there are less varieties, and it's less locked-down. Don't forget, Intel has a much larger userbase.
4. Who buys Intel hardware for their IGPs?

[JMB9]

As the only thing he could ever say about GNOME was always super negative (even during e.g. shared desktop summit), not sorry to see him go.

Quite amusing that some people are wondering about that.
There is no one I know of who like GNOME or KDE (Plasma ) and who really DO work under Linux with background knowledge of Unix CDE, fvwm etc.
Anybody who wants to just work as efficiently as possible would not use one of those bloated DEs (I give them a try once in a while nevertheless).
Maybe those are better for people normally working on Windows and thus lack appreciation for efficiency.
I am using XFCE - not perfect, but it goes out of my way.
I don't mind people using GNOME or KDE - but being astonished that there are many people who are not willing to change their workflow due to designers is narrow minded - isn't it?

[FuturePilot]

Quite amusing that some people are wondering about that.
There is no one I know of who like GNOME or KDE (Plasma ) and who really DO work under Linux with background knowledge of Unix CDE, fvwm etc.
Anybody who wants to just work as efficiently as possible would not use one of those bloated DEs (I give them a try once in a while nevertheless).
Maybe those are better for people normally working on Windows and thus lack appreciation for efficiency.
I am using XFCE - not perfect, but it goes out of my way.
I don't mind people using GNOME or KDE - but being astonished that there are many people who are not willing to change their workflow due to designers is narrow minded - isn't it?

Is this a joke?

[microcode]

Ok, several problems:
1. That's a serious overstatement. If you're already using your hardware and it works, it will never be "functionally useless" or even "mostly useless" in the foreseeable future.
2. Dirk probably doesn't do much development at all. He is replaceable, and there are still plenty of active developers.
3. At this point, Intel's backing isn't a necessity anymore. Mesa itself is almost 100% complete. Besides, look at nouveau. That's almost entirely community driven and it is making some tremendous progress. Worst case scenario, if Intel ditched Linux entirely, you'd have to wait a little longer for newer GPUs to get driver support. Again, consider nouveau and that wouldn't be long of a wait. Intel's hardware is dramatically simpler, there are less varieties, and it's less locked-down. Don't forget, Intel has a much larger userbase.
4. Who buys Intel hardware for their IGPs?

If your assumptions were true in my specific case, I would agree...

However, (1) the software is currently not functioning correctly on my hardware, and it ruins everything. (2) Dirk's leaving potentially symbolizes that he doesn't feel that OTC is doing what he signed up for anymore, they could be shutting down a programme. The only other explanation is that he just wants to move on, but we haven't heard from him yet. (3) Fair point, though I would still be concerned, and at the very least it would be inconvenient when I want to use new hardware. (4) I do, mainly because of the excellent experience with their driver, and its windows-par performance. I buy intel hardware for the drivers and the energy efficiency. Not everyone wants to run DooM in VR headsets at 240fps.

Unlike with other vendors, I have never felt ripped off by the performance or compatibility (compared to the windows offering) offered by intel's IGP driver. Yeah, you can say that it's because the Windows driver is bad, but at least it doesn't get any better; if that makes any sense to you.

If Intel pulled out OSTC support, it'd be a severe pain in the knee.

[bakgwailo]

Quite amusing that some people are wondering about that.
There is no one I know of who like GNOME or KDE (Plasma ) and who really DO work under Linux with background knowledge of Unix CDE, fvwm etc.
Anybody who wants to just work as efficiently as possible would not use one of those bloated DEs (I give them a try once in a while nevertheless).
Maybe those are better for people normally working on Windows and thus lack appreciation for efficiency.
I am using XFCE - not perfect, but it goes out of my way.
I don't mind people using GNOME or KDE - but being astonished that there are many people who are not willing to change their workflow due to designers is narrow minded - isn't it?

Damn, better tell that to all of engineers that I know with decades of experience (myself included) that use Gnome or KDE as their primary development environment. Or maybe you are one of those who went to OSX ?

[duby229]

If your assumptions were true in my specific case, I would agree...

However, (1) the software is currently not functioning correctly on my hardware, and it ruins everything. (2) Dirk's leaving potentially symbolizes that he doesn't feel that OTC is doing what he signed up for anymore, they could be shutting down a programme. The only other explanation is that he just wants to move on, but we haven't heard from him yet. (3) Fair point, though I would still be concerned, and at the very least it would be inconvenient when I want to use new hardware. (4) I do, mainly because of the excellent experience with their driver, and its windows-par performance. I buy intel hardware for the drivers and the energy efficiency.

Unlike with other vendors, I have never felt ripped off by the performance or compatibility (compared to the windows offering) offered by intel's IGP driver. Yeah, you can say that it's because the Windows driver is bad, but at least it doesn't get any better; if that makes any sense to you.

If Intel pulled out OSTC support, it'd be a severe pain in the knee.

Really? You said you buy Intel products for their GPU driver? How horrible. Literally everything displayed on screen tears, 2d images, 3d games, video, fonts, icons, everything possible. And lets not forget mis-loaded textures or lighting glitches... Glitchiest graphics driver ever....