State of the Linux Kernel 2011

The Linux Foundation provides a vendor neutral home for long-term collaboration on the Linux kernel. They provide Linux creator Linus Torvalds and Greg Kroah-Hartman, Linus' right-hand man, the opportunity to work full-time on Linux. And they prepare a semi-annual report on the state of the Linux kernel, which is a fascinating examination of the most successful collaborative software development project in history. The full report is quite interesting, and has a number of interesting observations about Linux development. A couple of highlights are worth closer examination. Almost 8,000 individual developers have contributed to the Linux kernel, and 1,000 of those have been new contributors within the last year. Interestingly, the report states that "In any given development cycle, approximately 1/3 of the developers involved contribute exactly one patch." The top ten contributors for the last five years account for 9% of the total work on the kernel; and 20% of the work is directly attributable to the top 20 kernel developers. Ironically, Linus Torvalds doesn't appear as a top contributor in the current report. "Linus remains an active and crucial part of the development process; his contribution cannot be measured just by the number of changes made," the report states. Because Linus, Greg KH and other kernel maintainers "put more time into the review and management of patches from others, they write fewer patches of their own."

grover norquist nfl week 12 picks nfl week 12 picks jason witten ucla vs usc rich rodriguez rich rodriguez