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The Linux Foundation Releases Annual Linux Development Report

Posted by samzenpus on from the naming-names dept.

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.

16 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. Yes but... by Meditato · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Yes but... by BitZtream · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Or you could just take note that Linus is becoming more of a manager than a raw code producer.

      Of course, this is completely normal and part of the process a developer goes through in their lives as they progress through their stages.

      Its just something to note, no need to get all offended, especially since we're not even talking about you, Fanboy. Linus will eventually stop writing code for Linux all together for any number of reasons, including the inevitable death.

      Pull your panties out of your crack and move on. No one is insulting your God.

      --
      Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
    2. Re:Yes but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm with you.

      To me, the shocking thing is that it took him 22 years to fall out of the top 100. I would have assumed he'd have fallen out AT LEAST 10 years ago - for the very reasons you cite.

    3. Re:Yes but... by Meditato · · Score: 2

      Its just something to note, no need to get all offended, especially since we're not even talking about you, Fanboy. Linus will eventually stop writing code for Linux all together for any number of reasons, including the inevitable death.

      Pull your panties out of your crack and move on. No one is insulting your God.

      Calling someone a fanboy with all the abusive tone of Linus Torvalds. How ironic.

      Just FYI, I'm not at all attached to Linus or the manner in which he conducts himself towards others...but the continual complaints and passive aggressive swipes can be even more tiring and petty than the man himself. Linus is just not all that big a deal. In what world is the statement "so-and-so has fallen out of the top 100 contributors, ALL THE WAY to 101st!" news? Why are we even talking about him, again? That's my question.

  2. Greatest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Greatest by mrvan · · Score: 2

      Python seems to have around 750kloc (approximately 50/50 c and python code), while the linux kernel has 17mloc. That is more than 20 times as much code.

      This does not mean Linus is doing a better job managing than Van Rossum, but it certainly says something about the respective complexity of the projects.

    2. Re:Greatest by elashish14 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I think that pretty much makes him the greatest software development manager of all time.

      Automatically, when anyone makes these kinds of statements, I consider Stallman as well. Linux wouldn't have gotten very far without a compiler, and my understanding is that gcc was basically the only compiler around at the time (you know what I mean - icc, etc. don't count). And of course, you could also make a claim that it was all of Stallman's work with GNU that kept Linux and many other projects open instead of being overtaken by greedy interests and left to die in obscurity.

      While all of this makes for a great debate, it's of course always going to be very subjective and there's never any real answer. I'm sure that there are many others that could also go in here as well (Larry Wall, Ritchie, Kernighan, and so on).

      --
      I have left slashdot and am now on Soylent News. FUCK YOU DICE.
  3. Re:Obligatory MS comparison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  4. No Comparison by nate_in_ME · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  5. Nobody from Ubuntu by Drunkulus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    No mention of Canonical anywhere in the report. Why am I not surprised?

    1. Re:Nobody from Ubuntu by Gavagai80 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Ubuntu's supposed purpose is to add polish, so one shouldn't expect them to be doing kernel work.

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      This space intentionally left blank
    2. Re:Nobody from Ubuntu by HeckRuler · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I dunno about the specific developers at Ubutnu, but the reason that Ubuntu exists, other than being pissed at Debian's long release cycle, is because everyone was really sick and tired of the fragmentation that user-grade Linux distros were presenting. "What distro should I use?" isn't a question you want newbies to have to ask. "Well that depends on what distro you're using" isn't a response that I should have to give to my grandmother running Linux for the first time. Ubuntu have a nice solid STANDARD platform and interface for non-techy users to become familiar with.

      So of course they decided to switch everyone to Unity. Fuckers.

  6. Just showing corporate subsidies ... by perpenso · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

  7. Re:But Linus still ranks 1st in profane tirades by geek · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wouldn't say he's first. He's just the most publicized. Theo from OpenBSD is pretty bad and a quick glance over the Debian mailing lists will blow your mind. Linus is bad but there are far worse offenders than him.

  8. Re: Vision Engraving and Wolfson ? by tlhIngan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wow - this seem such a niche market companies (with all due respect) for making top 10 contribution to linux kernel - interesting...

    No, it makes complete sense - these guys do drivers and such as a marketing exercise. When companies come to them, they want to answer "Yes, we have a driver for you, it's already in the kernel". OEMs are far more likely to choose a company that has drivers already in the kernel than not (and thus need to develop one). And being mainline In the kernel is a quality bar - it's one thing to have a driver to integrate yourself, it's another to have one that's in every kernel going forward.

    So a lot of these contributions are "scratching their own itch" where the itch is "sell more of our chips".

  9. Re:Nobody from Oracle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.