SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- 04/01/08 --
The Linux Foundation (LF), the nonprofit
organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced
it is publishing a new report written by kernel developers Jonathan Corbet
and Greg Kroah-Hartman, and LF Director of Marketing Amanda McPherson.
The report titled "Linux Kernel Development: How Fast it is Going, Who is
Doing It, What They are Doing, and Who is Sponsoring It" is available today
at
https://www.linux-foundation.org/publications/linuxkerneldevelopment.php.
The paper finds that over the last three years the number of developers
contributing to the kernel has tripled and that there has been a
significant increase in the number of companies supporting kernel
development.
Even though Linux has achieved near-ubiquity as a technology platform
powering Internet applications, corporate servers, embedded and mobile
devices and desktops, mainstream users know very little about how Linux is
actually developed. This community paper exposes those dynamics and
describes a large and distributed developer and corporate community that
supports the expansion and innovation of the Linux kernel. The Linux kernel
has become a common resource developed on a massive scale by companies who
are fierce competitors in other areas.
Corbet and Kroah-Hartman, key kernel developers themselves and members of
the Linux Foundation's Technical Advisory Board (TAB), reviewed nearly
three years of kernel history representing Linux releases 2.6.11 through
2.6.24. The report goes into detail on how the Linux development process
works, including who is contributing, how often and why.
Highlights include:
-- Who is Writing Linux?
-- Every Linux kernel is being developed by nearly 1,000 developers
working for more than 100 different corporations. This is the
foundation for the largest distributed software development project
in the world.
-- Since 2005, the number of active kernel developers has tripled,
reflecting the growing importance of Linux in the embedded systems,
server, and desktop markets.
-- Between 70 and 95 percent of those developers are being paid for
their work, dispelling the "hobbyist" myth present from the start
of open source development.
-- Who is Sponsoring Linux?
-- More than 70 percent of total contributions to the kernel come from
developers working at a range of companies including IBM, Intel,
The Linux Foundation, MIPS Technology, MontaVista, Movial, NetApp,
Novell and Red Hat. These companies, and many others, find that by
improving the kernel they have a competitive edge in their markets.
-- How Fast is Linux Developed and Released?
-- An average of 3,621 lines of code are added to the kernel tree
every day, and a new kernel is released approximately every 2.7
months.
-- The kernel, since 2005, has been growing at a steady state of 10
percent per year.
"Never before in the history of computing have there been so many
companies, users and developers united behind one project, specifically one
that has seen so much commercial success," said Jim Zemlin, executive
director at The Linux Foundation. "This rate of innovation is unsurpassed
in software. We are pleased to publish this valuable community content from
members of our Technical Advisory Board."
The Linux Foundation's TAB is comprised of leading Linux developers who
advise the LF on technical requirements and issues important to the kernel
community. Kernel community members James Bottomley, Jonathan Corbet, Dave
Jones, Christoph Lameter, Ted Ts'o, Chris Wright, and others will
participate in a panel on the State of Linux at the LF's Collaboration
Summit next week. For more information on the Summit, please visit:
https://www.linux-foundation.org/events/collaboration.
Jonathan Corbet is also the editor of Linux information source LWN.net and
maintains the Linux Foundation's Linux Weather Forecast.
Greg Kroah-Hartman is a Novell Fellow, working for the SuSE labs division
of the company. He is also the Linux kernel maintainer for the PCI, USB,
driver core, debugfs, kref, kobject, and the sysfs kernel subsystems, and
leads the Linux Driver Project: www.linuxdriverproject.org.
Amanda McPherson is director of marketing at the LF and leads its promote
and community-relations activities.
About the Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the
growth of Linux. Founded in 2007, the Linux Foundation sponsors the work of
Linux creator Linus Torvalds and is supported by leading Linux and open
source companies and developers from around the world. The Linux Foundation
promotes, protects and standardizes Linux by providing unified resources
and services needed for open source to successfully compete with closed
platforms. For more information, please visit www.linux-foundation.org.
Trademarks: The Linux Foundation and Linux Standard Base are trademarks of
The Linux Foundation. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. Third party
marks and brands are the property of their respective holders.
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