>> Are you interested in knowing how operating systems work in general? Do you want to know how parts of Linux specifically work?
> An undertaking which a lot of novices take for reasons unknown to me. I was always fine without this.
I'm probably atypical, but my motivation for wanting to get involved is that many of the jobs I really want demand Linux kernel development experience. I have good systems-level experience at all levels except the kernel, and I want to fill that hole.
Good luck, but in my opinion there's very little room for improvements in core code which could be found and undertaken by newcomer. It is more realistic to get first kernel-related experience by working on drivers - they tend to be much less perfect. For drivers work, all you need is usage of provided API and communication with maintainers and mentors. That's my point.
> An undertaking which a lot of novices take for reasons unknown to me. I was always fine without this.
I'm probably atypical, but my motivation for wanting to get involved is that many of the jobs I really want demand Linux kernel development experience. I have good systems-level experience at all levels except the kernel, and I want to fill that hole.