Netdev Foundation is a user-led effort under the supervision of the Linux Foundation, focused on financially supporting Linux networking development (netdev). The foundation may sponsor:
- netdev CI (NIPA)
- contracting work related to netdev testing
- research grants
- licenses for tooling (e.g. web analytics)
- improvements to development tooling like patchwork, lore, etc.
- some conference costs, etc. etc.
Full foundation charter is available here.
The foundation aims to serve community needs - to suggest a project, or an area of focus for the foundation please open a GitHub issue in this repo. All community members are invited to "thumbs up" the project / issues they support, the foundation will prioritize the projects with most positive feedback.
We recommend sharing the ideas to the netdev@ mailing list, as well prior to opening the issue, to raise awareness within the community. Mailing list messages proposing or discussion project ideas should contain the [Foundation] subject prefix.
The charter stipulates that the foundation is controlled by a Technical Steering Committee (TSC) and a Member Board (MB). TSC is the technical expertise: proposes projects to the board and is also responsible for execution. Board does governance (like a corporate board): approve spending and ensure we follow the LF rules, e.g. on reporting and elections.
A lifetime of a project should follow these approximate steps:
- MB, TSC and community members pitch projects and add them the GitHub issue tracker.
- Every 4-6 months TSC votes / ranks the project based on how much support they have
- MB-supported projects should be granted higher priority if TSC agrees that they are objectively beneficial to the community.
- TSC members volunteer to shepherd the projects, one or more members per project
- members work on fleshing out the project proposals offline and bring the to TSC for review;
- shepherds should work with relevant MB and community members.
- Projects return to TSC for approval, approved projects are shared with the MB.
- MB approves the project and returns it to TSC for execution.
- TSC shepherd(s) work with MB representative(s) and LF to get pricing
quotes (as necessary), set up contracts, drive project to completion
- if there are multiple potential suppliers TSC should be consulted on the choice.
- TSC shepherds periodically report progress to the TSC (monthly meeting), the MB, and the community.
Current members / sponsors of the netdev foundation are (in alphabetical order):
- Alibaba
- Fastly
- Jump Trading
- Meta
- Red Hat
The TSC members are:
- Simon Horman (chair)
- Andrew Lunn
- David S. Miller
- Eric Dumazet
- Jakub Kicinski
- Johannes Berg
- Kuniyuki Iwashima
- Willem de Bruijn