As the Linux community waits with baited breath for Linus Torvalds to begin work on the 2.5 kernel tree, charge of the stable 2.4 kernel has been handed to an 18-year-old developer.

Torvalds' right-hand man, Alan Cox, recently announced that Marcelo Tosatti, an open source developer from Brazil, will be taking over development of the stable 2.4 kernel.

"I'm very confident that Marcelo will do a great job," said Cox, who plans to spend "more time concentrating on Red Hat customer related needs."

Cox assures the Linux community that "this is not the giant change it may seem from the outside."

He said that the stable kernel management was and is a group effort, and he will continue to offer Marcelo advice.

"I will not be disappearing from the scene, although I might be a little less visible at times," he said.

It should also be noted that both Torvalds himself and Bill Gates were both barely out of their teens when they started actively developing operating systems.

According to Cox, Torvalds will be releasing a 2.4.14 and probably a 2.4.15 kernel, and finishing off the VM (virtual machine) stability work and "other rough corners." At that point the 2.5 kernel tree will be opened, he said.