Kristen Accardi is a Linux kernel developer working at Intel’s Open Source Technology Center (OTC). She has been a Linux developer since 2000. Recently she has been contributing to the Linux kernel in the s erial ATA subsystem, as well as the PCI hotplug, and ACPI subsystem.

She was formerly the PCI hotplug subsystem maintainer.

Dawn: What is your role in the Linux Plumbers Conference and why is it important?

Eventually thi s became important for mobile systems as well, as the PCIe ExpressCard form factor became more widely used. I’ve tra nsitioned out of active development for hotplug and moved on to work on various other subsystems within Linux, including ACPI and Serial ATA. Our charter is to enable Intel’s C PUs and chipsets in the Linux Kernel, and the hotplug controller that is part of our server chipsets was an important feature for many of our customers. I’m also working on code that sits just above the kernel, but still deep in the plumbing of the Linux system. I started working on PCI hotplug as my first project within the OTC.

I signed on to work at Intel full time in 1997, and it stayed a dream for a couple years. In 2005 I transferred to OTC and began finally began working on projects where the code was making it out of Intel and into the community. I started writing drivers during an internship I had with Intel’s Lan Access Division my last year of school. I used it to compile my computer science assignments at home, since this was before the days of broadband and we only had a 2400 baud modem to connect to the school network from home. Kristen I fell in love with Linux: while attending co llege at Portland State University in the early nineties. Eventually I was able to start working on Linux drivers for various groups within Intel, although much of the work I did was either for experimental purposes and not released, or for a product that got unfortunately cancelled before the first release.

After I discovered how much I really enjoyed working down in the guts of the sy stem, it became a dream for me to get paid to write Linux kernel code.

I also setup a process by which volunteer teams can apply to host the Plumbers conference in other cities. We looked at the options and decided that if we wanted this kind of conference, we would just have to create it ourselves. For 2009, a different team is organizing the conference, and I have instead worked to setup a steering committee within the Linux Foundation that will guide future conference organizers and make sure that the mission of the Plumbers conference is carried over from year to year. It is very important for us to take advantage of this face time and use it to achieve things that are difficult to do electronically, such as reach a consensus, brain storm, or build better working relationships. excuse to get together and have a beer) of the Portland area kernel hackers. As developers working on open source projects, we have to travel to conferences in order to interact with our “coworkers”, since the team of developers who will contribute to a particular project will come from many different companies, and from all over the globe.

e. My role last year was as the conference organizer. In particular, communication can be a problem when problems need to be solved that cross multiple projects, due to the distributed nature of the development. Most conferences out there were either too general and large to be useful as a communication forum, or too narrow and not inclusive enough to get all the players together. Kristen: The Plumbers conference was dreamed up during a monthly “meeting” (i. I am hopeful that Plumbers Conference will continue to be a project that everyone in the community finds useful enough to continue being involved in.

Dawn: How did you get involved in Linux kernel development and more specifically, hotplug technologies?

Dawn: Can you also tell us a little more about your passion for farming and living a more sustainable existence?

You don’t really realize what you are missing until you taste a fresh egg, eat a perfectly ripe v eggie, or try a slow growing heritage chicken. You know exactly what was put on your vegetables, and how your chicken was treated before it winds up on your table. In addition, you reduce your carbon footprint by growing and raising your own food. All this does not add up to a great tasting product. I feel really lucky that we have the opportunity to raise our new baby in this place, and I hope to teach her the rewards of growing your own food, and to never take it for granted. The varieties of meat you can chose from are often ones that have been developed to grow as large and as rapidly as possible. We moved to some acreage a few years ago, and vegetable gardening and raising our own food has become a hobby that gives me more satisfaction than I ever imagined it would.

Kristen: Don’t tell my mother but if, I could I would be a farmer full time! In particular, I love knowing that producing our own food is great for the planet and for ourselves. The vegetables you get in the store are optimized for storage and easy mechan ized harvest and are not always picked at their pe ak of ripeness.

software.intel.com