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I am amazed that Twitter employs kernel developers.

by aeyes 5y ago

bartvk 5y ago
The writer recently joined, if their Twitter bio is correct (August 2020). They have a handle with a bunch of numbers, and zero tweets: https://twitter.com/YangShi05755293 https://twitter.com/YangShi05755293 I couldn't really find there are more in the team.
- saagarjha 5y ago
  A quick search shows that the team includes at least several more engineers, which is not very surprising.
EnderWT 5y ago
From this job posting[1]: "The Kernel & Operating System team at Twitter is responsible for shipping the Linux kernel and OS versions on which all of Twitter’s services run. Our job is to ensure the safe, reliable, fast, and efficient operation of the lowest levels of the Twitter software stack! We actively contribute many of our fixes upstream and are active members of the Linux OSS community." [1]https://careers.twitter.com/en/work-for-twitter/202101/005c4b36-7267-4cbd-9988-d4be72b0f10c/dbcd92fc-a9b4-4628-88a4-323152561545.html/engineering-manager-kernel-operating-systems.html https://careers.twitter.com/en/work-for-twitter/202101/005c4...
saagarjha 5y ago
Most large companies employ at least a handful of kernel developers to keep their servers running right. Some (Google, Facebook, etc.) have large teams that contribute significant amounts of code upstream, often based on what they're running internally.
oblio 5y ago
FAANG & co. discovered that not being afraid of software, but instead harnessing its power, lets them leave old school enterprises in the dust. And once you're no longer afraid of software, but instead an active creator of software, it's much cheaper and safer to instead employ some open source developers to take care of maintenance for your stuff. The old school enterprise way would have been to pay IBM, Red Hat, Oracle, whoever, millions and tens of millions of dollars in support for Cover-Your-A** type policies set by middle managers. FAANG & co. instead hire developers for this maintenance, and guess what, once you hire these people, they can do other things for you, because they're generally smart people (and also motivated, can work without supervision, etc.).
otterley 5y ago
You shouldn’t be. At the level of scale at which Twitter runs, a custom kernel modification that improves performance by even a small percent can yield millions of dollars per year in hardware and energy savings. Investing in a kernel developer makes financial sense when viewed in that lens.

I am amazed that Twitter employs kernel developers.

by aeyes 5y ago

I am amazed that Twitter employs kernel developers.

The writer recently joined, if their Twitter bio is correct (August 2020). They have a handle with a bunch of numbers, and zero tweets: https://twitter.com/YangShi05755293 https://twitter.com/YangShi05755293 I couldn't really find there are more in the team.

saagarjha 5y ago
A quick search shows that the team includes at least several more engineers, which is not very surprising.

EnderWT 5y ago

From this job posting[1]: "The Kernel & Operating System team at Twitter is responsible for shipping the Linux kernel and OS versions on which all of Twitter’s services run. Our job is to ensure the safe, reliable, fast, and efficient operation of the lowest levels of the Twitter software stack! We actively contribute many of our fixes upstream and are active members of the Linux OSS community." [1]https://careers.twitter.com/en/work-for-twitter/202101/005c4b36-7267-4cbd-9988-d4be72b0f10c/dbcd92fc-a9b4-4628-88a4-323152561545.html/engineering-manager-kernel-operating-systems.html https://careers.twitter.com/en/work-for-twitter/202101/005c4...

saagarjha 5y ago

Most large companies employ at least a handful of kernel developers to keep their servers running right. Some (Google, Facebook, etc.) have large teams that contribute significant amounts of code upstream, often based on what they're running internally.

oblio 5y ago

FAANG & co. discovered that not being afraid of software, but instead harnessing its power, lets them leave old school enterprises in the dust. And once you're no longer afraid of software, but instead an active creator of software, it's much cheaper and safer to instead employ some open source developers to take care of maintenance for your stuff. The old school enterprise way would have been to pay IBM, Red Hat, Oracle, whoever, millions and tens of millions of dollars in support for Cover-Your-A** type policies set by middle managers. FAANG & co. instead hire developers for this maintenance, and guess what, once you hire these people, they can do other things for you, because they're generally smart people (and also motivated, can work without supervision, etc.).

otterley 5y ago

You shouldn’t be. At the level of scale at which Twitter runs, a custom kernel modification that improves performance by even a small percent can yield millions of dollars per year in hardware and energy savings. Investing in a kernel developer makes financial sense when viewed in that lens.