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The Linux Foundation Releases Annual Linux Development Report
darthcamaro writes "The Linux Foundation's Who Writes Linux report (sign up required) is now out and after 22 yrs leading Linux, Linux creator Linus Torvalds has fallen out of the list of top 100 developers in terms of code contributions. He currently ranks 101st for number of patches generated from the Linux 3.3 to the Linux 3.10 kernel releases." Read below for a few highlights from the report.
Nearly 10,000 developers from more than 1,000 companies have contributed to the Linux kernel since tracking began in 2005. Just since the last report, more than 1,100 developers from 225 companies have contributed to the kernel. In fact, more developers and companies are contributing to Linux than ever before with Linux kernel 3.10 seeing the most developer contributions ever.
Mobile and embedded companies are increasing their investments in Linux. Linaro, Samsung and Texas Instruments together increased their aggregate contributions from 4.4 percent during the previous version of the paper to 11 percent of all changes this year. Google’s contributions are also up significantly this year.
The Top 10 organizations sponsoring Linux kernel development since the last report include Red Hat, Intel, Texas Instruments, Linaro, SUSE, IBM, Samsung, Google, Vision Engraving Systems Consultants and Wolfson Microelectronics. After appearing on the list for the first time in 2012, Microsoft notably dropped off the list entirely this year. A complete list of the top 30 organizations sponsoring this work is included in the paper.
The rate of Linux development is unmatched. The average number of changes accepted into the kernel per hour is 7.14, which translates to 171 changes every day and more than 1,200 per week.
Mobile and embedded companies are increasing their investments in Linux. Linaro, Samsung and Texas Instruments together increased their aggregate contributions from 4.4 percent during the previous version of the paper to 11 percent of all changes this year. Google’s contributions are also up significantly this year.
The Top 10 organizations sponsoring Linux kernel development since the last report include Red Hat, Intel, Texas Instruments, Linaro, SUSE, IBM, Samsung, Google, Vision Engraving Systems Consultants and Wolfson Microelectronics. After appearing on the list for the first time in 2012, Microsoft notably dropped off the list entirely this year. A complete list of the top 30 organizations sponsoring this work is included in the paper.
The rate of Linux development is unmatched. The average number of changes accepted into the kernel per hour is 7.14, which translates to 171 changes every day and more than 1,200 per week.
does that matter? He still maintains the repo, still performs the merges, still does the quality control, still determines the direction of future updates. As Slashdot is fond of saying, the quality of a developer isn't just determined by the number of lines or commits he contributes.
I don't know why that bit about Torvalds is even necessary, unless someone is trying to take a swipe at him. Again.
There is no other person who has led as large and successful a software project for as long as Linus has with as much involvement as Linus has. I think that pretty much makes him the greatest software development manager of all time. It also means that those who criticize his management style need to pony up more than just their opinions.
It's a bit unfair to compare a kernel and an entire OS. As much as I am a Linux fanboy, it's comparing apples an oranges. Now if you were to compare GNU/Linux and Windows it might be more fair.
Only 10,000 developers for the Linux kernel, compared to which, Microsoft has about 100,000 employees and the best they can do is Windows 8. Sad, isn't it?
Their other products are surprisingly good if all of the 100,000 are working on Windows kernel development.
He certainly still has time to get into arguments about RDRAND and such.
I have as much of a mixed environment as anyone (2 Android Tablets, 1 android phone, 1 win8 desktop, 1 win8 laptop, 1 win7 tablet, 1 linux desktop), so I really have no preference one way or the other. However, the "funny" moderation of your post aside, as a developer, I think it's a bit unfair to categorize MS developers this way. After all, they were only writing what management told them to.
He should really be called GNU/Linus.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I just want to see what colorful names Linus calls the creators of this report.
That's gotta count for something.
Only 10,000 developers for the Linux kernel, compared to which, Microsoft has about 100,000 employees and the best they can do is Windows 8. Sad, isn't it?
Don't you mean 10,000 developers to only develop a kernel? That's a lot of wasted manpower. Microsoft's 100k developers work across a variety of different products, hardware and software suites. Many are marketing and sales as well. They can even show actual profit being made by their efforts.
It really is remarkable to see so much corporate contribution to a public project. Do their contributions count as charitable for tax purposes, or have the stars simply aligned to a rare positive externality?
Only 10,000 developers for the Linux kernel, compared to which, Microsoft has about 100,000 employees and the best they can do is Windows 8. Sad, isn't it?
That's what you get when even the most impressive army of developers is only allowed to add new features and code improvements for the sake of profit, as opposed to adding them for their own sake.
No mention of Canonical anywhere in the report. Why am I not surprised?
Its probably not a swipe. Just acknowledging that Linux is primarily developed via corporate/governmental subsidies and not the more romantic hobbyist developer contributing his/her personal time.
Wow - this seem such a niche market companies (with all due respect) for making top 10 contribution to linux kernel - interesting...
4wdloop
For dreaming up the project and executing it. Everyone else is a follower, no matter how valuable their contributions are.
Futurist Traditionalism
Canonical isn't going to have a kernel team like the competition; their focus is the desktop side. Oracle is the surprise failure. They've complained before that their expertise rivals Red Hat, but this report appears to disagree.
This sounds like a metric about as useful as LOC (lines of code) - it favors all those devs who like to make multiple 2 line changes instead of checking in all related files together without breaking a build.
> if Apple was the only phone OS maker I'm sure they would license o/sX to anyone who could prove decent hardware compatibility
A few years ago, Apple had the only credible smartphone OS. They didn't license their smartphone OS when they were the only one. Instead they gave the majority of market share to a company who DID license their OS.
Is that a mistake they would only make once? For several years they had the only GUI OS for desktop computers. Rather than license it, they left every other manufacturer stuck with DOS. Had Apple licensed their OS, few of us would remember Microsoft.
I'd say the year of the Linux desktop has aalready come, twice.
On one weekend in 2007, over two million *nix desktops were booted for the first time. It just so happened that *nix was BSD based, and had an Apple GUI. The year of the "Linux" desktop was the year of OSX. Not the kernel we hoped for, but a mainstream POSIX system that will run all your GPL code.
Then in 2010, millions of new systems had the Linux kernel. Today, MOST new computers have Linux installed. By 2010, the ubiquitous consumer PC had shrunk to fit in your hand. All of these lovely Linux systems had a nice GUI from Google. Since most new computers are portable, not chained to the desktop, I don't know if any future year of the Linux DESKTOP matters too much.
That esculated quickly. I mean that got really out of control!
Year of the Linux desktop has already happend several times. It's like Voyager leaving the solar system. http://xkcd.com/1189/