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Drive-By Contributors to the Linux Kernel

Posted by timothy on from the what-are-the-gang-signs-to-safely-employ dept.

eldavojohn writes "There's an interesting post over at the Kernel Trap that focuses on a man's attempt to find out how many one-time contributors Linux averages per release. Although imperfect due to some obvious unavoidable flaws, he got a few dirty numbers of 'never seen from agains' in the commits from patches 2.6.11 through 2.6.25 and the numbers are: {63, 148, 128, 92, 96, 122, 137, 140, 135, 95, 136, 153, 179, 179, 304}. This makes sense as another reader, Greg KH, pointed out that the distribution curve is tilted towards one-hit contributions, 'the distribution of all of our users are: 50% only contributed 1 patch; 25% contributed 2; 12% contributed 3; 6% contributed 4 and so on ...'"

8 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. won't something think of the children? by hostyle · · Score: 4, Funny

    How long til we get Jack Thompson on the case? Drive-bys and other kernel related violence is just not on! ~

    --
    Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
    1. Re:won't something think of the children? by bsDaemon · · Score: 3, Funny

      That's why I use FreeBSD -- JAILS make it the law-and-order OS of choice :-p

  2. Re:Suggestions for evil? by Henry+V+.009 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, I for one am willing to subvert the entire open source movement this way, but only for the United States government, and only for a great deal of money.

    Representatives of the NSA: if you're reading this, you know who I am and how to get in touch with me. And probably what I'm doing at exactly this moment.

  3. Anonymous Cowards by Thelasko · · Score: 2, Funny

    I predict a record number of AC posts on this article.

    --
    One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
    1. Re:Anonymous Cowards by smittyoneeach · · Score: 2, Funny

      Better still, record number of one-off accounts with names like d1b946b97d71423f365fa797d1428e1847c0bec1 that look like
      #include "small_patch_preempted_by_fascist_Filter_error_ hmm_wonder_what_that_means_WRT_popularity_of_once_great_site as_I_break_this_up_to_work_around_yet_another_asinine_error.c"

      --
      Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
    2. Re:Anonymous Cowards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I've had some success getting modded up here on /., so I tried a one-off submission to the Linux kernel. Haven't heard back from them so far. Here it is:

      --- filetable.c.orig
      +++ filetable.c
      +//
      +// You must be new here!
      +//
        exit(1);
        }

  4. Re:Suggestions for evil? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Representatives of the NSA: if you're reading this, you know who I am and how to get in touch with me. And probably what I'm doing at exactly this moment.
    Yes, we do. And we've got a request: next time you post something that will prompt us to monitor the surveillance cameras in your home, could you please put on some pants first?
  5. Re:How many security vulnerabilities have they add by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    it is Linux or Windows if you want an OS You just really pissed off the whole freeBSD userbase. Both of them.