I first noticed Christoph Hellwig during FAST conferences. With his spiky hair and non-academic background, he had a different presence from most attendees. But I could tell he was an expert when it came to XFS, a file system that was created by Silicon Graphics specifically for working with large files, then later ported to Linux.
Since we both attended Linux FAST, I got to know Christoph a bit better. Christoph is an independent consultant and a Linux kernel developer, a combination that is rare, as most Linux developers have some corporate sponsorship, usually in the form of a job. I also noticed that Christoph likes to ski, reminding me of the many ski bums I’ve met who arrange their life and work so they are free to ski when the slopes are best.
