Linux kernel engineer David Hildenbrand is leaving Red Hat after a decade of significant contributions to memory management, virtualization, and VirtIO technologies. His recent update of kernel maintainer information to a kernel.org address signals his departure from the company. Hildenbrand has been a key figure at Red Hat in Munich, working on QEMU/KVM virtualization, Linux kernel memory management, VirtIO, and related low-level areas. He has contributed to over one thousand mainline Linux kernel patches in 2025 alone.
His work has been critical in areas such as HugeTLB code, s390 KVM code, memory management reclaim code, Get User Pages (GUP) memory management code, kernel samepage merging (KSM), reverse mapping (RMAP), transparent hugepage (THP), memory advice (MADVIS), VirtIO memory driver, and VirtIO balloon driver. Hildenbrand’s contributions have helped shape the Linux kernel’s performance and efficiency, particularly in virtualization and memory management. His departure raises questions about the future of Red Hat’s Linux kernel development and its ability to maintain its leadership in these areas.
While Hildenbrand has not yet disclosed his next destination, his involvement with the Linux kernel community through kernel.org suggests he may continue to contribute to open-source projects. The Linux community will be watching closely to see where he goes and what impact his new role may have on ongoing kernel development efforts. This departure marks another significant loss for Red Hat as it continues to navigate the evolving landscape of open-source software and enterprise computing.