Karol Herbst Exits Nouveau Maintenance Amidst Concerns Over Linux Kernel’s Toxic Environment

Karol Herbst has played a significant role in developing the Nouveau driver for over ten years. This open-source driver supports NVIDIA graphics on Linux. Recently, he announced that he is stepping down as a maintainer of the Nouveau driver due to disagreements within the Linux kernel community.

Karol, who now works for Red Hat, is also known for his contributions to Mesa and the Rusticl OpenCL driver. His resignation comes shortly after Hector Martin left as an Apple Silicon maintainer, highlighting growing tensions within the kernel development environment.

In his statement, Karol expressed frustration over the lack of inclusivity and respect in the community, emphasizing the need for collaboration and understanding. He believes that the community should foster a supportive environment, lacking power struggles and political statements that can alienate people.

He noted, “The moment I made up my mind about this was reading… ‘we are the thin blue line.’ This isn’t okay. It doesn’t promote an inclusive atmosphere.” He stressed that such statements, regardless of intent, can cause harm and create division.

Karol took a moment to acknowledge the hard work of fellow maintainers Lyude Paul and Danilo Krummrich, who will continue to support Nouveau. He hopes for a positive change within the community while recognizing his own limits after years of dedication.

With Karol’s departure, Red Hat’s team remains focused on advancing the Nouveau project and also developing NOVA, a new Rust-based NVIDIA kernel driver for newer GPUs.