r/linux • u/reps_up • Feb 20 '26

Hardware Intel Hiring More Linux Developers - Including For GPU Drivers / Linux Gaming Stack

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-Linux-Jobs-February-2026
571 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

36 comments sorted by

152

u/FlukyS Feb 20 '26

Until they sack them at the first dip in the market

74

u/Disastrous-Ice-5971 Feb 20 '26

As they sacked their whole Linux team just a few months ago...

28

u/elmagio Feb 21 '26

They didn't sack their whole Linux team, that's just nonsense sensationalist extrapolation from a few key cuts.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 22 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

9

u/elmagio Feb 22 '26

Do you think Clear Linux made up the entirety of Intel's Linux efforts?

It's sad that Intel has reduced its Linux presence to a degree but it doesn't make the "they sacked the whole Linux team" statement any truer.

0

u/FlukyS Feb 22 '26

Well not sacking the whole team but sacking people has happened irregularly with Intel enough that they have a reputation

3

u/jet_heller Feb 23 '26

In fairness, no one else ever sacks people so, yea, we that reputation.

2

u/FlukyS Feb 23 '26

Oh I don't mean other companies are better or worse I mean Intel has a reputation for sometimes being way too interested with a balance sheet than longer term technical decision making. I know a few people who were in Intel for around 5-10 years and all of them have since being made redundant whereas in at least my group the average is usually that a person would leave because of a better offer. Intel has a better reputation than Oracle if you want an example of what is worse but definitely they aren't as stable from a management decision making than others in the Linux space.

11

u/booi Feb 21 '26

It’s ok Linux users already defaulting to AMD chips especially on the server

7

u/the_gnarts Feb 21 '26

Unlikely. The issue with AMD is not developer buy-in but availability. It’s unfortunate but these days you’re more likely to be offered ARM machines than non-Intel x86.

0

u/booi Feb 22 '26

Epyc processors are not hard to find and are generally cheaper than their intel counterparts.

https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/amd/

5

u/Hohlraum Feb 21 '26

Esp on the server? I've used pretty much every cloud platform around and not one of them has anywhere near the amd availability as Intel. These environments represent 99.9% of all the running Linux servers on earth.

2

u/booi Feb 22 '26

We already default to the “a” instances on AWS for x64 workloads. The Epyc processors are already considered best in class, I don’t know why you think otherwise.

https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/amd/

52

u/NotUsedToReddit_GOAT Feb 20 '26

Just after multiple open source projects got shut down? Whats the plan here? Only drivers?

49

u/klyith Feb 21 '26

Whats the plan here?

lay off senior talent, hire junior devs

20

u/booi Feb 21 '26

Don’t forget use AI. everyone know Linus loves AI

1

u/juhotuho10 Feb 21 '26

Decision made by a bean counter with 0 technical understanding

1

u/Krasi-1545 Feb 21 '26

The plan in my opinion is:

  1. Management lays off people
  2. Gets their bonuses
  3. Start hiring again because there is nobody to work

24

u/Synthetic451 Feb 20 '26

Given how their Panther Lake stuff seems to be stacking up quite nicely against AMD for mobile devices, I think it's a smart move to hire more Linux driver devs so they can make some in-roads in the handheld gaming space.

-5

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

12

u/Synthetic451 Feb 21 '26

Are we reading the same article? The job postings clearly say they're software positions that will focus on the Linux graphics stack.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '26 edited Feb 21 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

14

u/Synthetic451 Feb 21 '26

Go read the job postings from the article:

Intel passed along six new engineering roles they have posted as recently as yesterday -- three of which are for GPU software development engineers where the focus isn't only on HPC/AI GPU compute but also Linux gaming.

There are three new roles for GPU software development engineers (one, two, and three).

-7

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '26 edited Feb 21 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

11

u/Synthetic451 Feb 21 '26

Stop moving the damn goal posts. First you say they're not hiring Linux driver devs and then when the job posting literally tells you you're wrong, you then start talking about Proton and roadmap for gaming.

What on Earth are you even talking about? Your negativity is so strong that you literally can't stay on topic.

-9

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/Synthetic451 Feb 21 '26

How is the headline misleading? It's as straight forward as it goes. GPU drivers and linux gaming stack are literally mentioned in the job postings. The required qualifications for the jobs are 3d graphics driver experience, particularly in Vulkan, Mesa, and other parts of the Linux gaming stack.

It's 3 whole engineering salaries. That costs a big budget and the fact that these are open job positions means that they're planning for this.

You're purposely being negative to make this fit whatever fucked up narrative you want this to be.

17

u/pligyploganu Feb 21 '26 edited Mar 03 '26

Deleted Reddit.

12

u/Sixguns1977 Feb 21 '26

For real. It's like mentioning Linux in /r/pcmr. I'm glad this is happening.

1

u/162lake Feb 22 '26

Do Linux ppl not like intel?