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08-20-2009, 05:43 AM
More developers are contributing more code to the development of Linux, and are speeding up in the process, according to a new study from the Linux Foundation.
The latest "Who Writes Linux" report (http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3737761) is now its second year, tracking the development of Linux from the 2.6.24 kernel (http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3724006) to the recent 2.6.30 kernel release (http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3824421).
The report found that that there Linux saw a net increase of 2.7 million lines of code between the 2.6.24 and 2.6.30 releases, compared to the almost 300,000 lines added in the run-up to 2.6.24.
That code was contributed to Linux at a faster rate and by more developers than the previous release, the report also found.
New code contributions have included additional hardware support as well as operating system features such as next-generation filesystems like BTRFS (http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3811871).
Since the first Who Writes Linux report last year, the average number of individual developers who contribute to Linux has grown more than 10 percent
But those figures don't tell the whole story, according to the Foundation.
"Despite the large number of individual developers, there is still a relatively small number who are doing the majority of the work," the report said. "In any given development cycle, approximately 1/3 of the developers involved contribute exactly one patch. Over the past 4.5 years, the top 10 individual developers have contributed almost 12 percent of the number of changes and the top 30 developers have contributed over 25 percent."
Surprisingly, Linux founder Linus Torvalds is no longer among the top 30 Linux contributors over the course of the last year, as measured by the total number of changes. Since the 2.6.24 kernel, Torvalds contributed 254 changes. In contrast, Red Hat kernel developer Ingo Molnar contributed 1,164 changes between the 2.6.24 and the 2.6.30 kernel releases.
In terms of the top companies that contributed to the 2.6.30 release, Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) ranked No. 1, with 12 percent of all change contributions. IBM (NYSE: IBM) came in at second place with 6.3 percent, Novell (NASDAQ: NOVL) third at 6.1 percent and Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) fourth at 6.0 percent.
While developers with company affiliations contribute many changes to Linux, the report found that 21.1 percent of all changes since the 2.6.24 kernel came from developers with no corporate affiliation. In the previous study, the Linux Foundation reported only 13.9 percent of developers as having no corporate affiliation. At least part of the increase may come from simply improved data-collection.
For full article, visit internetnews.com (http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3835286)
The latest "Who Writes Linux" report (http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3737761) is now its second year, tracking the development of Linux from the 2.6.24 kernel (http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3724006) to the recent 2.6.30 kernel release (http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3824421).
The report found that that there Linux saw a net increase of 2.7 million lines of code between the 2.6.24 and 2.6.30 releases, compared to the almost 300,000 lines added in the run-up to 2.6.24.
That code was contributed to Linux at a faster rate and by more developers than the previous release, the report also found.
New code contributions have included additional hardware support as well as operating system features such as next-generation filesystems like BTRFS (http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3811871).
Since the first Who Writes Linux report last year, the average number of individual developers who contribute to Linux has grown more than 10 percent
But those figures don't tell the whole story, according to the Foundation.
"Despite the large number of individual developers, there is still a relatively small number who are doing the majority of the work," the report said. "In any given development cycle, approximately 1/3 of the developers involved contribute exactly one patch. Over the past 4.5 years, the top 10 individual developers have contributed almost 12 percent of the number of changes and the top 30 developers have contributed over 25 percent."
Surprisingly, Linux founder Linus Torvalds is no longer among the top 30 Linux contributors over the course of the last year, as measured by the total number of changes. Since the 2.6.24 kernel, Torvalds contributed 254 changes. In contrast, Red Hat kernel developer Ingo Molnar contributed 1,164 changes between the 2.6.24 and the 2.6.30 kernel releases.
In terms of the top companies that contributed to the 2.6.30 release, Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) ranked No. 1, with 12 percent of all change contributions. IBM (NYSE: IBM) came in at second place with 6.3 percent, Novell (NASDAQ: NOVL) third at 6.1 percent and Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) fourth at 6.0 percent.
While developers with company affiliations contribute many changes to Linux, the report found that 21.1 percent of all changes since the 2.6.24 kernel came from developers with no corporate affiliation. In the previous study, the Linux Foundation reported only 13.9 percent of developers as having no corporate affiliation. At least part of the increase may come from simply improved data-collection.
For full article, visit internetnews.com (http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3835286)