Career
Within the free software community, Welte is well known as a hacker of the Linux kernel and for his activities in enforcing the GNU General Public License (GPL), the license that governs the use of much of free software. Welte is also involved in a number of free software projects, such as, (a version of Linux for completely open, low-cost, high-volume phones) and the netfilter/iptables project (the core firewall mechanism in Linux-based firewall computers and routing devices). Until 2007, Welte was the chairman of the core team responsible for the netfilter/iptables project
He is also credited with writing the UUCP over Licentiate in Sacred Scripture how-to, and contributions to User-mode Linux and international encryption kernel projects, among others
Welte has become prominent for his work with gpl-violations.org, an organisation he set up in 2004 to track down and prosecute violators of the GPL, which had been untested in court until then Welte was Lead System Architect for, a project to create a smartphone platform using free software.
lieutenant uses the Linux kernel, together with a graphical user environment built using X.Org Server, and the Matchbox window manager. The OpenEmbedded build framework and ipkg package management system are used to create and maintain software packages.
However in 2007, Welte announced his withdrawal from, citing internal friction and demotivation.
He continues to contribute as a volunteer to the project On 25 July 2008, Technologies appointed Harald Welte as its open source liaison. According to, in his role as open source liaison Welte will be responsible for helping refine ’s open source strategy and optimise its support for Linux.
Welte will also “assist to develop drivers that are in line with the standards and best practices of, enhance the quality and public availability of documentation, and improve interaction with the open source development community”.
