--- title: Linus Torvalds: “We’re Going in the Wrong Direction” description: Linus Torvalds discusses the growing strain on Linux kernel maintenance, describing how AI tools are surfacing more vulnerabilities and enabling a flood of... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/linus-torvalds-we-re-going-in-the-wrong-direction--mpftjgvk4 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Linus Torvalds: “We’re Going in the Wrong Direction” | daily.dev og:description: Linus Torvalds discusses the growing strain on Linux kernel maintenance, describing how AI tools are surfacing more vulnerabilities and enabling a flood of... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/linus-torvalds-we-re-going-in-the-wrong-direction--mpftjgvk4 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/MpftJgvk4.png og:image:alt: Linus Torvalds: “We’re Going in the Wrong Direction” og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Linus Torvalds: “We’re Going in the Wrong Direction” **[SavvyNik](https://daily.dev/sources/savvynik)** · 15 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Linus Torvalds discusses the growing strain on Linux kernel maintenance, describing how AI tools are surfacing more vulnerabilities and enabling a flood of patches, some low quality, that overwhelm maintainers. He notes CVE counts per release have jumped from roughly 500 to nearly 2,000, and explains he has started pushing back on late, non-critical fixes to avoid destabilizing releases. Torvalds reiterates that he no longer reads most code personally, relying instead on trust built over decades with maintainers, and reviews pull requests mainly through their explanations rather than line-by-line code inspection. He also touches on his minimal toolset (Git and email), his stance that he works with people rather than AI tools, and the increasing role AI plays for other maintainers doing patch checking. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why is Linus Torvalds pushing back on late kernel patches? Because he believes some maintainers got too used to sending fixes very late in the release window, and any fix, even a small one, carries a slight risk of introducing a new problem. With release windows only about nine weeks long, he now asks contributors to queue non-critical fixes for the next release instead of rushing them in late, after noticing recent releases had grown large enough to worry him that development was heading in the wrong direction. _daily.dev helps kernel contributors track evolving maintainer expectations around patch timing and release stability._ ### How much has the number of CVEs per Linux kernel release increased recently? CVE counts per release stayed level around 500 from kernel 6.9 through 6.19, then jumped sharply between 6.19 and 7, and again between 7 and 7.2, reaching nearly 2,000 CVEs registered per release. This coincides with AI tools increasingly being used to uncover vulnerabilities and generate patches submitted by maintainers and developers. _Developers tracking kernel security trends can follow rising CVE counts and AI's role in patch volume on daily.dev._ ### How does Linus Torvalds review the roughly 200 pull requests he merges every two weeks? He relies on trust rather than reading the underlying code, since no single person can understand 35 million lines of kernel code. He reads the explanations accompanying pull requests to grasp the bigger picture, and only inspects actual code when merge conflicts arise, an explanation is insufficient, or something doesn't add up, at which point he pushes back. _daily.dev helps engineers weighing trust-based versus code-review-based workflows for large open source projects._ --- Tags: [#security](https://daily.dev/tags/security), [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/linus-torvalds-we-re-going-in-the-wrong-direction--mpftjgvk4) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Linus Torvalds: “We’re Going in the Wrong Direction”","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/linus-torvalds-we-re-going-in-the-wrong-direction--mpftjgvk4","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/linus-torvalds-we-re-going-in-the-wrong-direction--mpftjgvk4"},"datePublished":"2026-09-02T13:04:29.539Z","dateModified":"2026-09-02T13:05:27.433Z","description":"Linus Torvalds discusses the growing strain on Linux kernel maintenance, describing how AI tools are surfacing more vulnerabilities and enabling a flood of...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kRHqRWINWFQ/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kRHqRWINWFQ/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"SavvyNik","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"SavvyNik","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--WqWN5vuC--/f_auto/v1743923591/logos/savvynik","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/savvynik"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/linus-torvalds-we-re-going-in-the-wrong-direction--mpftjgvk4","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"security,linux,ai-coding","timeRequired":"PT15M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"Linus Torvalds: “We’re Going in the Wrong Direction”","description":"Linus Torvalds discusses the growing strain on Linux kernel maintenance, describing how AI tools are surfacing more vulnerabilities and enabling a flood of...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kRHqRWINWFQ/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-09-02T13:04:29.539Z","duration":"PT15M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/MpftJgvk4","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/kRHqRWINWFQ"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"SavvyNik","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/savvynik"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Linus Torvalds: “We’re Going in the Wrong Direction”"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/linus-torvalds-we-re-going-in-the-wrong-direction--mpftjgvk4#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why is Linus Torvalds pushing back on late kernel patches?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Because he believes some maintainers got too used to sending fixes very late in the release window, and any fix, even a small one, carries a slight risk of introducing a new problem. 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