Linux Conversations | Episode 10: Powering Linux Innovation: SUSE’s Critical Silicon Partnerships with Jose Betancourt

Welcome back to “Linux Conversations,” our blog series where we explore the world of Linux with experts from SUSE. In this episode, we shine a light on the crucial role of technology partnerships, particularly with silicon providers. We’re joined by Jose Betancourt, Manager of the SUSE Linux Product Management team, who brings extensive experience from various roles at SUSE, including managing technology partners.

Join us as Jose explains what a silicon partner is, and how SUSE’s deep, bidirectional cooperation with these vendors goes far beyond simple driver adaptation. This partnership often enables the entire Linux ecosystem beyond SUSE Linux. For example, chipmakers leverage SUSE’s experience in helping create open-source drivers from scratch for new technologies like in the confidential computing drivers case. This kind of collaboration is a key driver of global open-source community innovation with real and tangible results. Discover why SUSE’s expertise and commitment to the open-source community make it a vital partner in bringing cutting-edge hardware to Linux.

Interview Transcript:

Rick Spencer: Welcome, Jose. It’s always nice to talk to you. Can you introduce yourself, your job title, and perhaps cover some of the different roles you’ve held at SUSE?

Jose Betancourt: Sure. I’m Jose Betancourt, currently the Manager of the SUSE Linux product management team. Prior to that, I managed the technology partners organization, covering ISVs and direct relationships with silicon partners like AMD^®, Arm^®, Intel^® and NVIDIA^®, which I still manage to some extent. Before that, I was a pre-sales solutions architect and a global alliances director.

Rick Spencer: So you’re deep in the thick of SUSE technology. What exactly is a silicon partner?

Jose Betancourt: A silicon partner is one of the companies that designs key components like CPUs, GPUs, DPUs, or other hardware accelerators. For us to consume their new technology, they must make software available, whether it’s drivers, upstream kernel work that we consume, or libraries like Nvidia with CUDA or AMD with ROCm. It’s a complex partnership.

Rick Spencer: So, these companies are making chips, and they need to ensure their chips work with the Linux kernel, or specifically the kernel used in SUSE Linux Enterprise, and that their APIs are available in SUSE Linux. Is that right?

Jose Betancourt: Correct. They have to provide that code and early access to those technologies so we can bring them into play and make sure they are available and consumable by our customers.

Rick Spencer: And do we ever help get that code upstream?

Jose Betancourt: Yes, we do significant amounts of work upstream. For example, we’ve done work with AMD in confidential computing, and we will be working with ARM on confidential compute for ARM as well. This is stuff we put upstream, so everybody who uses the Linux kernel gets the benefit of it, not just SUSE users. We don’t hoard that for our own customers. We also contribute to compilers like GCC.

Rick Spencer: That benefits the whole Linux community, then. Why do silicon providers like to work with SUSE?

Jose Betancourt: I’d say for a number of reasons. Firstly, because we’re truly committed to working upstream, and we’ve shown it for almost 30 years. Secondly, expertise. We have experts on staff who work upstream and can also make technologies consumable in a timely fashion. Because we’re often ahead of the curve, they want to collaborate with us, even if it’s extending confidential compute from a CPU to a GPU.

Rick Spencer: Do these silicon partners pay SUSE for this engineering work?

Jose Betancourt: It depends. We do both paid engineering work and regular contributions to the upstream community. Another big contribution they can make is providing compute resources or early access to technology. For example, for GCC optimizations, we might get access to pre-release chipsets from different silicon providers.

Rick Spencer: So, when the chipsets become available to end-users, the latest Linux kernel will support them. Do we ever deal with out-of-tree or closed-source drivers?

Jose Betancourt: We try to do all work upstream where possible. We have had situations where they might try to get us to take out-of-tree stuff. Our position is to avoid it as much as possible, but we manage exceptions if it’s needed to enable a particular customer, especially in embedded scenarios. For closed-source drivers, we avoid doing the work ourselves. We establish relationships where the silicon vendor does the work, and we might help them with packaging it in SUSE format. We then return the package, and they create their own SUSE repository.

Rick Spencer: So, you don’t put up walls to closed-source drivers, but you don’t incorporate them into your core engineering and support. Sounds like SUSE has a very good reputation in the industry.

Jose Betancourt: Definitely top-notch. We receive invitations to all the key events, like the ARM partner management conference, because of our recognized work. We have long-standing relationships with pretty much all these silicon providers; if not, it’s because the partner is younger than us!

Rick Spencer: Very cool. Any last words?

Jose Betancourt: It’s nice to work with these partners. We enjoy their collaboration. We enable their accelerators and want to work more with them in the future as we address new use cases like AI.

Conclusion:

Jose Betancourt’s insights illuminate the critical role of SUSE’s technology partnerships with silicon providers. These collaborations, deeply rooted in a shared commitment to open source and upstream contributions, are essential for bringing the latest hardware innovations to the Linux ecosystem. SUSE’s unparalleled expertise, timely enablement, and robust reputation make it a preferred partner, ensuring that advanced technologies like confidential computing and cutting-edge accelerators are readily available and optimized for enterprise Linux users. This dedication not only benefits SUSE customers but also strengthens the entire Linux community by fostering an environment of innovation and broad compatibility.

More from this Series:

• Linux Conversations | Episode 1: Running Multi-Linux Environments in Production with Donald Vosburg
• Linux Conversations | Episode 2: The Future of SUSE Multi-Linux with Johannes Hahn
• Linux Conversations | Episode 3: Fixing the Unfixable with William Preston
• Linux Conversations | Episode 4: 25 Years of Linux Evolution with Matthias Eckermann
• Linux Conversations | Episode 5: Securing the Untrusted: How Confidential Computing Protects Your Data with Joerg Roedel
• Linux Conversations | Episode 6: 25 Years of SUSE Expertise on SAP Infrastructure Supporting SAP’s Hybrid Cloud Journey with Tobias Kutning
• Linux Conversations | Episode 7: SUSE Security – Protecting Enterprise Linux with Marcus Meissner
• Linux Conversations | Episode 8: Ensuring SAP Quality: The Collaborative Automation Journey with Haris Sehic
• Linux Conversations | Episode 9: SUSE Security – The Gold Standard of Enterprise Linux Security and Compliance with Dietrich Banschbach and Knut Trepte
• Linux Conversations | Episode 10: Powering Linux Innovation: SUSE’s Critical Silicon Partnerships with Jose Betancourt

Stay tuned for more interviews in our Linux Conversations series—follow our blog or subscribe for the latest insights from SUSE Linux experts.

*Disclaimer: This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability.*