- Intel’s employment cuts are leaving vital controllers of the Linux nucleus without official engineering support
- Intel orphans controllers could eventually cause hardware compatibility problems for Linux -based systems
- It is possible that community developers have to intervene to replace the lost Intel driver experience
Intel’s continuous restructuring has led to significant changes in its contributions to the development of the Linux core.
The Linux kernel mail list shows that several controllers developed by Intel have been marked as orphans after the key engineers.
An example is the Intel wwan iOSM controller, used with certain M.2 modems and is found in some Chromebooks, which no longer has a maintainer after the game of M. Chetan Kumar.
Loss of maintainers for Intel Linux key controllers
The Intel PTP DFL Tod controller, which manages the functions of the day on the FPGA cards, has also been left without support after the departure of Tianfei Zhang.
In addition, the Intel Ethernet RDMA controller lost one of his maintainers, Mustafa Ismail, leaving a single Intel engineer to administer it.
Other changes include the KEEM Bay DRM controller, the kernel probes code once supervised by Anil S Keshavamurthy and the WWAN T7XX 5G controller, which lost both maintainers.
These maintenance changes are part of a broader restructuring in Intel, which has already reduced more than 12,000 jobs in 2025 so far.
The withdrawal of the company of specific hardware segments, such as WWAN and the production of Modem, has also contributed to the decision to stop maintaining certain related drivers.
If there are no replacements for the maintainers that come out, the affected drivers could be gradually outdated as Linux evolves.
This could create performance and compatibility problems for hardware that are still used, including laptops for programming, mobile work stations and systems that execute several Linux distributions.
Without first part updates, owners may need to trust patches created by the community or completely new drivers to maintain their operational devices.
Historically, the Linux community has intervened to maintain the orphan code, sometimes producing solutions that coincide or exceed the work of the original supplier.
However, complex drivers, particularly those that involve purification tools, high performance networks or specialized hardware, may be more difficult to support without the vision of original engineers.
While Intel continues to contribute to Linux’s nucleus, his smallest footprint in certain areas raises questions about long -term support for his hardware.
The ability of community developers to replace lost maintainers will decide how softly these Intel -based Linux systems continue to be executed.
Via phoronix
