Linus Torvalds offers to build guitar effects pedal for kernel developer

Linux overlord Linus Torvalds has offered to hand-build a guitar effects pedal for one lucky kernel contributor.

The odd offer appeared in his weekly state-of-the-kernel post, which on Sunday US time informed the Linux world that release candidate (rc) seven for version 6.13 of the Linux kernel “is slightly bigger than normal, but considering the timing, it's pretty much where I would have expected, and nothing really stands out.”

Torvalds therefore expects version 6.13 to debut next week, meaning it will arrive after his preferred seven release candidates and without delays caused by the usual holiday-period slowdown.

Torvalds then added a postscript in which he revealed that he often uses the holiday season to build LEGO, which he frequently receives for Christmas and his late December birthday.

He kept up that tradition last year, but “also ended up doing a number of guitar pedal kit builds” which he described as “LEGO for grown-ups with a soldering iron". For the uninitiated, guitar pedals change the sound of an electric guitar in various ways. They’re usually a small metal box that includes a basic circuit board and a few dials to alter sound and are activated by a built-in footswitch. They’re ubiquitous, cheap, and fun. Many prominent guitarists rely on a collection of them to create their signature sounds.

Torvalds doesn’t play guitar, but did the builds “because I enjoy the tinkering, and the guitar pedals actually do something and are the right kind of ‘not very complex, but not some 5-minute 555 LED blinking thing’.”

He enjoyed the experience and wants to build more pedals, so has decided to give one away to a random kernel developer – both as an act of generosity and to “check to see if anybody actually ever reads these weekly rc announcements of mine”.

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To be eligible for the pedal, you need to be a kernel developer who has a commit authorship from the year 2024 in Torvalds’ kernel git tree, and use the email address in that commit to send him an email with the subject "I WANT A GUITAR PEDAL".

He’ll pick a winner at random, use his own money to buy a pedal kit from a company called Aion FX, and then “build it with my own shaky little fingers, and send it to the victim by US postal services.”

Torvalds rated his past pedal-building efforts a “good success so far” but warned entrants “I'm a software person with a soldering iron.”

“I will test the result to the best of my abilities, and the end result may actually work … but you should set your expectations along the lines of ‘quality kit built by a SW person who doesn't know one end of a guitar from the other’.”

Torvalds’ choice of an Aion pedal is interesting, as the company admits that its products “are adaptations of the circuits of commercial pedals” rather than authorised productions.

“We understand that your circuit may be the product of a great deal of time and research,” the two-person company’s Trademarks information page states. “However, this is just one of the risks of entering the market and having a good product. Every single pedal manufacturer out there is subject to the same possibility of having their work traced and publicized. It’s not piracy, it’s not unethical, and it’s most certainly not illegal.”

The company argues that if Aion offers a product based on prior work “It’s better to see it as a badge of honor.

“If anything, it raises the profile of the product. Having the schematic publicized will confirm to people that it is in fact what it claims to be. If your pedal shows the signs of hard work and thoughtful design, you have nothing to worry about,” the company argues. ®