Torvalds: "People Who Start Writing Kernel Code Get Hired Really Quickly"

alphadogg writes Now more than ever, the development of the Linux kernel is a matter for the professionals, as unpaid volunteer contributions to the project reached their lowest recorded levels in the latest "Who Writes Linux" report, which was released today. According to the report, which is compiled by the Linux Foundation, just 11.8% of kernel development last year was done by unpaid volunteers – a 19% downturn from the 2012 figure of 14.6%. The foundation says that the downward trend in volunteer contributions has been present for years. According to Linus Torvalds, the shift towards paid developers hasn’t changed much about kernel development on its own. “I think one reason it hasn't changed things all that much is that it's not so much unpaid volunteers are going away as people who start writing kernel code get hired really quickly,” he said.

Comments

It's also not that easy

[Anonymous Coward]

I would like to contribute to the kernel, but seriously I don't have the time and I don't think I'm alone. And the kernel is also a big project. Almost every time I run into a bug or something that I could fix, some engineer at Intel or something has already fixed it and it's not merged yet. It's not that people that write kernel code gets hired, it's that now you more or less have to be hired in order to write kernel code. Yeah I know you don't have to, but it's not 1998 anymore and anyone can write kernel code just for the fun of it.

I used to contribute..

[toonces33]

Many years ago I worked on several parts of the kernel. But I got hired by a start-up and simply had no time, so I had to step away.

But I still fondly remember meeting all of the people involved. When I was doing things, I don't recall Linus being verbally abusive. Maybe it happened and I don't remember.

There is no problem here.

[duckintheface]

As Linus makes clear, there is no decrease in non-paid contributions. They are a smaller percentage becasue more professionals are now being paid to develop Linux. That is a good sign becasue it means more businesses see Linux development as something worth investing in. And it's probably the same people doing the programming. Previously they would have to do it for free but now they get paid. Nothing wrong with that.

Re:There is no problem here.

[mlts]

It might be something a college student might be able to devote time and effort to. Obviously, it won't pay directly, but after graduating, being able to point to a module in the kernel with one's name on it is a good way to find jobs, since there are a lot of companies that need niche programming needs (good luck getting a H-1B fresh off the boat to make usable, bug-free code for SCADA, life-safety, and limited environmental systems. Even pushing code to FPGA cards is something that takes some work, as you are not going to find a cookie-cutter MCSD who knows Verilog/VHDL.

Re:There is no problem here.

[Penguinisto]

There is no decrease since contributions have always been non-paid (from the perspective of the linux foundation). The joke was that as an unemployed developer, one must have a certain irrational fondness for the kernel in order to devote time to it as opposed to actually looking for paid work.

As sibling mentioned, I suspect that the majority of unpaid contributors (that is, folks who contribute without being paid to do so by an employer) are indeed college students. Hell, Linux itself was originally written when Linus was an unpaid college student (with a strong distaste for Minix, and who could blame the guy), so it's not as if the argument has no merit. Other sources of unpaid contributions would be retired devs who want to keep their brains sharp, or junior devs who get paid to write other stuff, but want to build up their resume without a degree or waiting to get years of experience (because let's face it: a kid whose resume says "I am an active contributor to the Linux Kernel - here's the URL listing my approved commits" is going to get a fuckload of notice by the hiring manager in a Linux/UNIX-oriented dev shop.)

Re:There is no problem here.

[Cyberax]

I'm was an H-1B and I came to the US for a salary that put me in the top tax bracket. My job description included development of critical medical systems.

H1B is simply an employment visa, that could be used for many purposes. There actually are no other options, even for highly qualified professionals (L1 requires corporate relationships, B1-in-lieu-of-H is extremely rare and Green Card processing takes way too much time).

It IS a valuable skill

[Anonymous Coward]

I frequently work with people who are terrified to touch anything related to kernel. Many are "professional" Linux-developers, but to them, all they know is user-space code.

I am the go-to guy with anything kernel related at my work, as I'm not only not afraid of the kernel, but I embrace the opportunity to dig deeper. I've learned that this is a rare and valuable skill in some technology circles. People seem to regard me as some kind of wizard (because I maintain tool chains and do all the integration stuff and similar). I did not exactly actively seek this position. The only real difference is that I've never been afraid to learn. Now I'm quickly becoming the in-house expert and I don't care. I can leverage that to death when looking for other jobs.

Re:Upper management be like

[Anonymous Coward]

I really want a T-shirt that says, "I've been flamed by Theo de Raadt". My one foray into the OpenBSD mailing list resulted in that flame. I can't actually remember what it was about, but Theo was probably right ;-) Honestly, I think the infamy that both Linus and Theo have is a little bit unfair. The flames are real and often are a little bit over the top (sometimes a lot, to comical effect), but I can't really recall very many situations where the actual content of the discussion wasn't carefully considered before the flames were emitted. In fact, the fact that these projects flourish is proof that the flames are not overly counter-productive. In contrast, I remember (many, many years ago) as a newly graduated developer I took an interest in the Hurd. I had done a 4th year project on Mach and thought it would be fun to work on it. It may be hard to believe for younger people, but in those days source code for unreleased projects was not that easy to come by, so I emailed the team to ask if I could participate. I was asked to send a resume, which I dutifully did. The reply that came back was incredibly rude and essentially said, "So you're a nobody. We have absolutely no interest in you. Go away and don't ever bother us again." There is a reason that projects like Linux and OpenBSD succeeded while the Hurd did not. The projects are accommodating and welcoming to new comers. You might get flamed for saying/doing something stupid, but you aren't abused for just trying to help. In fact, it is my opinion that most of the practices that people think of as "free software development" actually originated from the successful way that Linux was developed. Definitely before that time I think it was rare to be able to contribute effectively to a project without knowing someone who knew someone.

That's one grey-beard's perspective, anyway. Others may have had other experiences.