One of the original developers behind the work to allow the Linux kernel to be compiled using LLVM/Clang as an alternative to the GCC compiler is now back in the saddle working on LLVM Linux support. LLVM/Clang support for building the Linux kernel has been important for improving code portability and addressing GCC'isms, making use of LLVM compiler features not yet found with the GNU toolchain, evaluating the performance between GCC and Clang, and all the more important these days with the Linux kernel Rust integration.

Nick Desaulniers at Google had been a Linux kernel maintainer for LLVM support in overseeing the upstreaming and then ongoing development of various LLVM elements within the kernel source tree. But in February 2025 he left Google to join Tesla and since then his Linux kernel contributions ceased.

Now though it turns out Desaulniers has returned to Google and will once again be contributing to the Linux kernel. In a rather bold re-appearance, the patch updating his email address back to Google, he wrote in the commit message:

"MAINTAINERS: update ndesaulniers

I'm coming back. I will return. I will possess your body, and I'll make LKML burn."

That patch is now merged to Linux 7.2 Git after being picked up by Linus Torvalds.

It will be interesting to see what Nick Desaulniers has baking now for the Linux kernel.