About

I am Thomas Zimmermann. I co-maintain the Linux kernel’s DRM code. Occationally I work on picotm, a system-level transaction manager.

My professional interest is in transactional, distributed, and operating systems; systems development; and low-level programming. I have experience with the complete software stack, from hardware emulation in QEMU to Linux drivers to system’s programming to graphics programming with OpenGL and GTK+.

I currently work for SUSE on the GNU/Linux graphics stack.

I (re-)designed the low-level communication and driver architecture of Firefox OS during my time at Mozilla.

I hold a University degree in Computer Science (Diplom-Informatiker, comparable to M.Sc.).

Contact

You can reach me at blog@tzimmermann.org. I’m also on GitHub and LinkedIn.

Papers, Publications and Presentations

A Retrospection on 5 Years of simpledrm
SUSE Labs Conference 2026, video, slide deck, May 2026

Boot-up-Grafik unter Linux: von der Firmware bis zum Login
Chemnitzer Linux-Tage 2026, short paper, video, slide deck, Mar 2026

The Linux graphics stack in a nutshell, part 2
LWN.net, Dec 2023

The Linux graphics stack in a nutshell, part 1
LWN.net, Dec 2023

The Linux Graphics Stack in a Nutshell
SUSE Labs Conference 2023, short paper, video, slide deck, May 2023

Modern Graphics from Boot to Shutdown and Retiring fbdev
SUSE Labs Conference 2022, short paper, video, slide deck, May 2022

Chemnitzer Linux-Tage 2018
Presentation, video, slide deck, Mar 2018

System-Level Transactions with picotm
Shortpaper, Feb 2018

FrOSCon 2017
Presentation, video, slide deck, Aug 2017

Tübix 2017
Presentation on picotm, slide deck, Jun 2017

Firefox OS (with Ming Yin)
Presentation at Hochschule für Telekommunikation Leipzig, slide deck, May 2014

Profiling and Performance Workshop (with Gabriele Svelto)
Workshop at Mozilla Paris slide deck, examples, June 2013

Transactional Execution of System-Library Functions
Diploma thesis, Oct 2009

An Overview Of Model Driven Architecture
Student paper, May 2008

Plugin-based Isolation of Web Applications
Student paper, Jan 2008