Linux kernel engineer David Hildenbrand is leaving Red Hat after a decade of contributions, signaling a significant loss for the company. His recent update to kernel.org maintainer info indicates his departure, although he has not yet disclosed his next destination. Hildenbrand has been instrumental in memory management, virtualization, and VirtIO developments, making significant contributions to core Linux kernel code. He has served as a reviewer for various critical components, including HugeTLB, s390 KVM, and memory management reclaim code.
Hildenbrand had been employed by Red Hat the past decade in Munich working on QEMU/KVM virtualization, Linux kernel memory management, VirtIO, and related low-level areas. Just this year alone so far in 2025, he has authored or been mentioned on more than one thousand mainline Linux kernel patches. His expertise has been central to Red Hat’s virtualization and Linux kernel projects, contributing to the company’s technological leadership in these domains.
Despite his departure, his contributions will continue to influence the Linux kernel ecosystem. His work on memory management, virtualization, and VirtIO has left a lasting impact on the technology landscape. As Red Hat continues to evolve, the company may need to invest in retaining top talent or find ways to mitigate the loss of such a key figure. The Linux community and industry observers will be watching closely to see where Hildenbrand will go next and how this shift might affect the broader open-source development landscape.