At Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit 14 April 2010 it was a very interesting session on Q and A about linux kernel. Here are the main ideas discussed:
1) Documentation (lack of) – The documentation itself should be inside the kernel itself.
2) Need for new blood . Some of the original developers are getting old.
3) Keeping Independent thinkers is very important.
4) Fixing scheduler is around the corner. RTT will be merged into kernel.
5) Android is forking a part of kernel. There will be tries to merge codes between Google and Linux Kernel.
6) A person ( or persons ) are needed to reduce the kernel bloat ( kernel foot print )