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Linux Credits File Reanimated

Posted by Hemos on from the how-the-world-expands dept.

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."

3 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. The real question is... by TechnologyX · · Score: 5, Funny

    "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...

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  2. The CREDITS file is not very accurate by mocm · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

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    ***Quis custodiet ipsos custodes***
  3. Re:Research ?????? by Mr2cents · · Score: 5, Informative
    Talking about research, did you read the article? Did you check the credits file? Let me show you a snippet:
    N: Matti Aarnio
    E: *** (not printing someone else's email here as a spambot target)
    D: Alpha systems hacking, IPv6 and other network related stuff
    D: One of assisting postmasters for vger.kernel.org's lists
    S: (ask for current address)
    S: Finland

    N: Dragos Acostachioaie
    E: ***
    W: http://www.arbornet.org/~dragos
    D: /proc/sysvipc
    S: C. Negri 6, bl. D3
    S: Iasi 6600
    S: Romania
    A good part of the article is dedicated to the analysis, I suggest you check it out. Of course, it's difficult to resist writing an ad-hoc opinion when you see an article with only a few comments..
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    "It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey