Linux kernel dev team grows, Torvalds drops off the chart
Summary: The state of Linux kernel development report brings together some statistics that shows how Linux is growing and who's contributing.
Although all the information in it is drawn from the development management process and is thus already public, it brings together some statistics that shows how Linux is growing and who's contributing.
Over the past 16 months, the report says, 2.7 million lines have been added, there's been a ten percent increase in the number of developers contributing to each three-monthly release cycle, and the number of lines of code contributed each day has nearly tripled. Some five thousand developers across more than five hundred companies are involved: of those companies, Red Hat is in the lead with 12 percent of changes, IBM on 6.3 percent, Novel on 6.1 and Intel on 6.
Developers also sign off code when it's ready to be included in the kernel; here, Red Hat accounts for 36.4 percent and Google - which contributes under one percent of code - is second, signing off 10.5 percent of changes.
The report notes the long tail of companies who don't appear in the top lists but still actively contribute, often in specialist areas. Sony, Nokia and Samsung are all mentioned as adding code that supports consumer electronic equipment, with other code coming from Volkswagen for automobile networking and Quantum Controls BV, which makes navigational devices for yachts. With this breadth and depth of support, the report concludes, "even if the largest contributor were to cease participation tomorrow, the Linux kernel would remain on a solid footing with a large and active development community." It also says that the process of submitting code for inclusion in the kernel encourages a methodical, component-based approach to writing software which promotes reliability and maintainability.
In a footnote, the report says that Linus Torvalds himself, creator of the Linux project, has fallen off the Top 30 contributors' list since the previous report in 2008, mostly for reasons connected with the sort of work he does on the kernel. He's still an "active and crucial" part of the process, the report reassures.
This article was originally posted on ZDNet UK.
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Talkback
The future is appliance/device
Yawn
2.7 million lines of code added to the kernel. Sounds like bloat to me!
Considering all drivers are considered a part of the kernel
"Free" is not a business model.
"Greed" is a business model
What about people who do more with their computers than e-mail?
Rick
So what about them
On a technological level, there nothing out there Linux can't do that Windoze can. It's the monopolized ecosystem that prevents it from happening.
Already been tried before
vendors realise that it is on their shoulders to bring a unique
experience to end users via their own distribution, and realise that
they have to do more than dumping an operating system on a piece of
hardware. The number of times I've seen Linux distributions dumped
onto a netbook with no effort spent making sure that the computer
sleeps and wakes up correctly, that the wireless driver is stable, that
all the components are fully supported.
It fails because OEM's simply don't care - they know if they cared (and
this applies to not only Linux integration but Windows as well), their
costs would rise to that of Apple overnight.
partially agree
Emotive & Lame
RE: Linux kernel dev team grows, Torvalds drops off the chart
[i]Over the past 16 months, the report says, 2.7 million lines have been added, there's been a ten percent increase in the number of developers contributing to each three-monthly release cycle, and the number of lines of code contributed each day has nearly tripled.[/i]
So millions of lines of code added, bloating up linux (something I've said all along but flamed for it), have to update every 3 months, patches come out whenever they feel like and on no set schedule, and anyone can throw the code out there be it rogue and malicious. Too much duplication as well. Yep, that's linux for you, getting worse and worse every day. Meanwhile the rest of us will use operating systems that just work. No hassles, no constant babysitting of it, no dictators to tell us how we should act.
I'm looking forward to next year's report that states linux usage has dropped and seen a severe decrease in developers because they realized the system wasn't any good and they didn't have Linus around to tell them what to do. Not to mention they all went out and got paying jobs.
Linux is still soooo much...
Oh yeah?
You're reading into it what you want to
Ok, lets take your myth and run with it
Just stop...
I'll just say this: It's a very very unlikely scenario to ever happen with a system of this kind, since all the code is subject to peer review and approval.
Much more likely with other closed-source operating systems, where people aren't able to scrutinize the code.
I think I will continue, thanks
Message has been deleted.
Year after year
Isn't that true? (NT)