Linux Foundation Publishes Study on Linux Development Statistics: Who Writes Linux and Who Supports It

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Apr 01 (MARKET WIRE) --
The Linux Foundation (LF), the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating
the growth of Linux, today announced it is publishing a new report written by
kernel developers Jonathan Corbet and Greg Kroah-Hartman, and LF Director of
Marketing Amanda McPherson.

The report titled "Linux Kernel Development: How Fast it is Going, Who is
Doing It, What They are Doing, and Who is Sponsoring It" is available
todayat paper finds that over the last three years the number of developers
contributing
to the kernel has tripled and that there has been a significant increase in
the number of companies supporting kernel development.

Even though Linux has achieved near-ubiquity as a technology platform
powering
Internet applications, corporate servers, embedded and mobile devices and
desktops, mainstream users know very little about how Linux is actually
developed. This community paper exposes those dynamics and describes a large
and distributed developer and corporate community that supports the expansion
and innovation of the Linux kernel. The Linux kernel has become a common
resource developed on a massive scale by companies who are fierce competitors
in other areas.

Corbet and Kroah-Hartman, key kernel developers themselves and members of
the Linux Foundation's Technical Advisory Board (TAB), reviewed nearly three
years of kernel history representing Linux releases 2.6.11 through 2.6.24. The
report goes into detail on how the Linux development process works, including
who
is contributing, how often and why.

Highlights include:

-- Who is Writing Linux?
-- Every Linux kernel is being developed by nearly 1,000 developers
working for more than 100 different corporations. This is the
foundation for the largest distributed software development project
in the world.
-- Since 2005, the number of active kernel developers has tripled,
reflecting the growing importance of Linux in the embedded systems,
server, and desktop markets.
-- Between 70 and 95 percent of those developers are being paid for
their work, dispelling the "hobbyist" myth present from the start
of open source development.

-- Who is Sponsoring Linux?
-- More than 70 percent of total contributions to the kernel come from
developers working at a range of companies including IBM, Intel,
The Linux Foundation, MIPS Technology, MontaVista, Movial, NetApp,
Novell and Red Hat. These companies, and many others, find that by
improving the kernel they have a competitive edge in their markets.

-- How Fast is Linux Developed and Released?
-- An average of 3,621 lines of code are added to the kernel tree
every day, and a new kernel is released approximately every 2.7
months.
-- The kernel, since 2005, has been growing at a steady state of 10
percent per year.

"Never before in the history of computing have there been so many
companies, users and developers united behind one project, specifically
onethat has seen so much commercial success," said Jim Zemlin, executive
director at
The Linux Foundation. "This rate of innovation is unsurpassed in software. We're
pleased to publish this valuable community content from members of our
Technical Advisory Board."

The Linux Foundation's TAB is comprised of leading Linux developers who
advise the LF on technical requirements and issues important to the kernel
community. Kernel community members James Bottomley, Jonathan Corbet, Dave
Jones, Christoph Lameter, Ted Ts'o, Chris Wright, and others will participate
in a panel on the State of Linux at the LF's Collaboration Summit next week. For
more
information on the Summit, please visit:
https://www.linux-foundation.org/events/collaboration.

Jonathan Corbet is also the editor of Linux information source LWN.net and
maintains the Linux Foundation's Linux Weather Forecast.

Greg Kroah-Hartman is a Novell Fellow, working for the SuSE labs division of
the
company. He is also the Linux kernel maintainer for the PCI, USB, driver core,
debugfs, kref, kobject, and the sysfs kernel subsystems, and leads the Linux
Driver Project: www.linuxdriverproject.org.

Amanda McPherson is director of marketing at the LF and leads its promote
and
community-relations activities.

About the Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the
growth of Linux. Founded in 2007, the Linux Foundation sponsors the work
ofLinux creator Linus Torvalds and is supported by leading Linux and open source
companies and developers from around the world. The Linux Foundation promotes,
protects and standardizes Linux by providing unified resources and services
needed
for open source to successfully compete with closed platforms. For more
information, please visit www.linux-foundation.org.

Trademarks: The Linux Foundation and Linux Standard Base are trademarks of
The Linux Foundation. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. Third party marks
and brands are the property of their respective holders.

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