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Linux Credits File Reanimated
No_Weak_Heart writes "In his in depth paper Evolution of the Linux Credits file, Ilkka Tuomi discusses the challenges of extracting data from open source files, and then uses the extracted data to describe the geographical expansion of the core Linux developer community."
Luxumburg has more per capita changes then any other country?
Finland needs to support its baby and fight back!
--Ignore this thread as first posts are automatically modded down.
Look at this file you insensitive clod. Linus did write the kernel!!!
Make sure Tanenbaum, Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy are listed, otherwise Ken Brown will get upset. Who knows what he will get up to if provoked - he may call all Linux developers thieves, or even worse names!
People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
Odd..
I couldnt find SCO in there..
The preceding message was based on actual events. Only the names, locations and events have been changed.
Anyone who thinks there's little difference between the way men's and women's brains work should consider this statistic. I don't think that societal expectations, peer pressure, or discrimination can account for the 200-to-1 ratio in this case. It's probably safe to conclude that the kernel-hacker gene resides on the Y chromosome.
Have you read my blog lately?
"In July 2002, the Credits file contained information on 418 developers. With two exceptions, all were male "
2 female types listed in the credits file? With contact information? Time to do a little research of my own...
Slashdot sucks
It could just be that nerdy males with fewer social skills tend to gravitate toward introverted tasks that don't require a lot of personal interaction with others.
Women, by nature, are more social creatures. Sitting alone in a basement at night hacking a kernel isn't necessarily something they can't do (I've met plenty of women who blow me away in science in math), it's something they don't want to do. Hell, I had to ask one of my female friends to help me with some SQL statements for my website. She is a complete SQL expert, and better than any male I know.
The credits file is not a listing of every single developer who has ever contributed a line of code or more. It is a list of those who have made significant contributions, and few who made relatively minor.
Just because IBM set up a Linux lab in India, does not mean that lab is contributing in any significant way to the codebase of Linux, though they might be helping in other ways such using Linux at IBM.
Most programmers from the developed countries (read US, Europe) take the computer/network resources and even their standard of living for granted. Computer prices and network acces in developing countries is still sparse and exorbitant for most people.
Moreover, writing code for a hobby is at the back of the minds of most people, when their foremost worries are basic comforts needed for a comfortable life (read electricity, job, steady income, etc). It is only when a comfortable life is guaranteed, that a person has the luxury/option/motivation to pursue hobbies.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
The people in the CREDITS file are not all the people that work on the kernel. You should look at the Copyright notices in the source code.
E.g. I am not in the CREDITS file (not that I need to be), but I have Copyright notices in over 30 files. I guess there are many more people working on parts of the linux kernel than are noticed in the CREDITS file.
***Quis custodiet ipsos custodes***
I am sick of hearing this "lone hacker theory" rubbish. Since anyone who works on the kernel is going to be constantly emailing, newsgrouping, and using IRC/IM there is no reason to label them as unsocialable. Just because you are using a computer to do the socialising doesn't make it count less than an afternoon at the pub with your workmates. If they were sitting in their basements and hacking their own sources and never communicating with other developers then your model might hold up, but it just isn't relevant any more.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
I am sick of hearing this "lone hacker theory" rubbish. Since anyone who works on the kernel is going to be constantly emailing, newsgrouping, and using IRC/IM there is no reason to label them as unsocialable.
You think typing text characters into an e-mail or on IRC is the same as actually speaking to somebody in person right in front of you, staring them in the face?
Just because you are using a computer to do the socialising doesn't make it count less than an afternoon at the pub with your workmates.
Socializing on a computer isn't the same as socializing in person. Comparing it to an afternoon at the pub with your workmates his hilaroius. You may as well say you're actually "speaking" to me right now, and it's the same as if we actually ran into each other in person and started debating. Completely different. IM, IRC, and e-mail allow you to communicate with others without actually confronting them face to face.
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
Consider the following entry :
/dev/null /dev/random
N: Vijaya Chandra
E: v@tachyontech.net
W: http://www.tachyontech.net
D: Stress Tester -
D: Stress Tester -
(You needn't wake up your grep. This entry has been discontinued in the post-0.x kernels)
Tracerouting to tachyontech.net would tell you that I am in the UK, while only our web/pop servers are in england.
'Chandra' can either be a male or a female. But the androgynous 'Vijaya' with the 'a' at the ending would score high towards females.
I would be damnably pi*ed of to find myself considered as a female (unless of course I am thrown into the male-by-default group, which seems to be the case in the article) kernel developer from the UK
So how reliable can the results of such an evaluation be??
(Karma be damned; I am no better than an AC anyway)