Here it's talking specifically about the maintainers list in the Linux kernel's MAINTAINERS file[1]. Maintainer in the Linux kernel project is a role for a part

Here it's talking specifically about the maintainers list in the Linux kernel's MAINTAINERS file[1]. Maintainer in the Linux kernel project is a role for a particular subsystem. They receive, review, and merge patches for their subsystem. Kernel developers, on the other hand, write the patches and submit them. I believe that kernel maintainers are often also kernel developers. [1] https://www.kernel.org/doc/linux/MAINTAINERS https://www.kernel.org/doc/linux/MAINTAINERS