Novell Linux coder heads to Google

Robert Love, a high-profile Linux kernel programmer and chief architect of Novell's Linux Desktop project, has left the company for Google.

Love announced his departure from Novell on Friday via his blog, then followed up likewise Monday with news of his new employer. Love said he'll join Google's Open Source Program Office after a few weeks off finishing a new book to be published by O'Reilly and Associates: Linux System Programming: Talking Directly to the Kernel and C Library.

Love's departure takes place a few months after another high-profile open source programmer, Jeremy Allison, also left Novell for Google.

Allison blamed Novell's patent pact with Microsoft as a reason for his departure, but Love apparently doesn't fit into the same category. "The Microsoft/Novell agreement was not the motivation behind my departure," Love said in a posting on the Slashdot "news for nerds" site.

Google also employs Andrew Morton, another top Linux programmer.