Who Writes Linux?
Submitted by rw on Wed, 08/19/2009 - 14:53.
From the Linux Foundation, The Who Writes Linux paper has been updated.
Authors: Greg Kroah-Hartman, SuSE Labs/Novell Inc., Jonathan Corbet, LWN.net, Amanda McPherson, Linux Foundation
The kernel which forms the core of the Linux system is the result of one of the largest cooperative software projects ever attempted. The rate of change in the kernel is high and increasing, with over 10,000 patches going into each recent kernel release. These releases each contain the work of over 1000 developers representing around 200 corporations. This is an update to the April 2008 white paper.
August 2009
I always find the table of contributions by company affiliation interesting, so I have provided an excerpt here. Credit belongs to the original authors. Typos belong to me.
| Company name | Number of changes | Percent of total |
| None | 26664 | 18.2% |
| Red Hat | 17981 | 12.3% |
| Unknown | 11164 | 7.6% |
| IBM | 11151 | 7.6% |
| Novell | 11046 | 7.6% |
| Intel | 7782 | 5.3% |
| Consultant | 3657 | 2.5% |
| Oracle | 3513 | 2.4% |
| Linux Foundation | 2345 | 1.6% |
| SGI | 2317 | 1.6% |
| Parallels | 1939 | 1.3% |
| Renesas Technology | 1925 | 1.3% |
| Academia | 1712 | 1.2% |
| Fujitsu | 1592 | 1.1% |
| MontaVista | 1564 | 1.1% |
| MIPS Technologies | 1537 | 1.1% |
| Analog Devices | 1467 | 1.0% |
| HP | 1415 | 1.0% |
| Freescale | 1375 | 0.9% |
| 1261 | 0.9% |
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