Valve Contracts Another Prominent Open-Source Linux Graphics Driver Developer

If your dream is to work for Valve Software, getting experienced with the open-source Linux graphics driver development niche seems to be a decent pathway. Besides Valve, all the big hardware companies are routinely looking for more Linux graphics driver developers as well.

Valve already employs many developers to improve the overall open-source Linux graphics driver stack to enhance the Linux gaming ecosystem as a whole but a particular focus on the open-source Radeon driver stack for bettering the Steam Deck. Valve has made incredible improvements to the Mesa 3D drivers over the past number of years and they have shown no signs of letting up even with the Steam Deck in great shape and the RADV Vulkan driver quite mature.

It turns out a recent hire (or contractor) for Valve is Alyssa Rosenzweig, the developer who has done tremendous work on the Panfrost open-source, reverse-engineered Arm Mali graphics driver over the years. From there she went on to work at Collabora the past four years on Linux graphics. Since 2021 she's also been doing reverse-engineering on the graphics found with Apple M1/M2 SoCs and working with the Asahi Linux team on the AGX Gallium3D code for OpenGL with Apple Silicon on Linux.

Back in April was the announcement that Alyssa Rosenzweig was stepping down as the Panfrost driver maintainer as part of also leaving Collabora. At that point she didn't want to comment where she was heading.

A sharp-eyed Phoronix reader noted today that she updated her resume to reflect she's now employed by Valve. Rosenzweig is contracted by Valve to work on the upstream graphics drivers with the obvious focus on improving Linux gaming. Great to hear and given her vast experience will be exciting to see what open-source improvements she manages to further advance Linux gaming.