Linux Foundation Expects Revenues Of $177 Million This Year

The Linux Foundation known for hosting numerous open-source projects and stewarding the Linux kernel, organizing countless events, and employing various LF Fellows such as Linux Torvalds and Greg Kroah-Hartman has published their 2021 report.

The Linux Foundation's 2021 annual report outlines the various open-source/Linux software advancements they have made for the year, the list of current members, and other summaries for their work carried out this year. They also highlight their 1,000+ member growth, serving 750 open-source project communities, open-source careers in demand, and various diversity and inclusion metrics.

For those curious about the financial health of the Linux Foundation, in 2021 they forecast revenues of $177M USD. Around 55% of that amount is from membership dues and donations while about 26% comes from project support, another 9.5% from training, and 8.9% from event sponsorships and registrations. Compared to their prior filings, that's up a good amount from $124M in revenue in 2019 and $96M in revenue for 2018... Or going back to a decade ago, in 2011 they saw around $15M in revenue.

They do forecast expenditures this year though of $180 million, with 56% for project support, 12.5% for community infrastructure, 7.8% for corporate operations, 7.4% for community training, 7.2% for community tooling, 5.4% for community events, and 3.4% for Linux kernel support.

The Linux Foundation 2021 annual report can be read at LinuxFoundation.org.

Once again they are facing some criticism for the Linux Foundation's annual report being made on macOS using Adobe software products. They've done that in the past and in public settings pre-pandemic it hasn't been uncommon to find Linux Foundation directors and other stakeholders running Apple MacBook products with macOS.