Hot on the heels of the news of UNIX’s 40th anniversary comes a Linux Foundation report entitled Who Writes Linux. This report investigates who is contributing to the Linux kernel, and how much: “Since 2005, over 5000 individual developers from nearly 500 different companies have contributed to the kernel. The Linux kernel, thus, has become a common resource developed on a massive scale by companies which are fierce competitors in other areas.” Wow!
It bears noting that an analysis like this is only available because Linux is open source software. You can look through the changelogs and project history to see who has done what, who’s been attributed with doing what, etc etc.
ComputerWorld has done a nice job of summarizing the top contributing corporations. Lumped in with the expected participants (Red Hat, IBM, Novell) are some less likely companies (SGI, Parallels, Renesas Technology):
- Red Hat: 12.3%
- IBM: 7.6%
- Novell: 7.6%
- Intel: 5.3%
- Independent consultant: 2.5%
- Oracle: 2.4%
- Linux Foundation: 1.6%
- SGI 1.6%
- Parallels 1.3%
- Renesas Technology: 1.3%
- Academia: 1.2%
- Fujitsu: 1.1%
- MontaVista: 1.1%
- MIPS Technologies: 1.1%
- Analog Devices: 1.0%
- HP: 1.0%
As Vaughan-Nichols notes:
You see, Linux isn’t just some hobby, nor is it just being used by some businesses that specialize in it. No, Linux is made by big business for big business, and it has been for some time.
Businesses can use Linux because it’s such a robust, viable operating system: it frees them from having to develop and maintain their own operating systems for specialized (usually embedded) systems, and instead focus on applications develop for those systems. A lot people like to pooh-pooh Linux because they may have had some trouble using it on their crazy home-brew desktop system, but it’s clear that Linux is a very successful part of the computer industry today.
The Linux Foundation report itself is chock full of easy-to-read tables with interesting data (changes per hour, lines modified per day, etc). If you’re curious about Linux development, this is a pretty good glimpse at it. From a purely academic perspective, it would be fun to compare this data with similar data from Apple and Microsoft regarding OSX and Windows development, respectively. Good luck getting that data from them, though.
“Businesses can use Linux because it’s such a robust, viable operating system:”
Yes. a “viable” operating system whose hap-hazard software development model does not allow Linux to be accredited with the Open Group UNIX specification.
For a real open-source UNIX, OpenSolaris is the go.
“For a real open-source UNIX…”
Wouldn’t that be because Linux is not Unix?
A little insight and read wouldn’t hurt those to come by and read about this: http://www.dwheeler.com/secure-programs/Secure-Programs-HOWTO/history.html
Plus, just to make things a bit more clear, have a look at this http://www.netneurotic.net/mac/unix/images/UNIX.png
Not IMHO.
CDDL licensing; assigning of copyright to Sun & others limits the ability to assemble a significant community; Momentum ? ISV’s ? IHV’s ? Oracle ? No. of installed systems on non Sun H/W ?
Linux is a far safer, more secure choice, with more momentum, more ecosystem etc..
There is only one company in the world who can continue to develop an OS in a proprietary manner and that’s not Sun or indeed Oracle.
Sun have tried to be half pregnant with OpenSolaris. Not possible. ZFS & others will soon be overtaken. Sun should have open sourced properly.
As shown here …
http://opensolaris.org/os/communities/
the OpenSolaris community is a decent one especially with Sun having strong experience in maintaining communities.
“ZFS & others will soon be overtaken.
Sun should have open sourced properly.”
–> To make it easier for Linux to clone/leech Sun’s innovative technologies (e.g. DTrace).
I don’t think so.
It should be appreciated that the good thing Linux did was make Sun go back to it’s roots and open-source it’s fine Solaris operating system; unlike IBM/HP with their AIX/HP-UX.
There is now more choice and the implicit theme with open-source is freedom of choice, not strangely accepting some “poster-child OS” (e.g. Linux) as the default for every computing platform.
e.g. I prefer OpenSolaris for desktop/workstation/server/storage- server platforms and I use Linux (i.e. Android) for embedded applications; I have not got around to sampling OpenSolaris on embedded devices yet.
Dude, not everyone wants/needs the advantages offered by UNIX or OpenSolaris. Many are just migrating from Windows and I have to admit that some Linux distros do a better good job of easing their move.
I recognise your points however, the thing is, many people who only knew “Windows” do not really know or appreciate the power of a Linux/Unix system and this power can most probably provide a positive effect on the computing experience.
I’d pick Linux over Windows any day as I have migrated friends and others from Windows to Linux. However, I also ended up migrating these people to OpenSolaris (made easy due to prior Linux experience) due to deficiencies in Linux. With OpenSolaris’ live/install-CD and their GUI IPS (image packaging system), the OpenSolaris installation is simple.
OpenSolaris reception has been good by these former Window/Linux users.
Not only can Linux be a robust & viable operating system (once you’ve learned how to use it beyond the basics), BUT… It’s Free!!
Cnet has summarized by users who don’t necessarily identify themselves as employees of specific organizations, even if they are.
Red Hat 36.4%
Google 10.5%
Novell 8.2%
None 6%
Intel 6.4%
IBM 5.3%
Linutronix 2.8%
Linux Foundation 2.7%
Consultant 1.9%
Hansen Partnership 1.6%
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10315545-62.html
I would like to see statistics showing:
1. which chipset vendors provide the best Linux drivers, for their products.
2. which PC & PC peripheral vendors provide the most Linux-friendly products.
This would be useful to consumers & businesses, when they need to make purchasing decisions.
Linux developers appreciate the increase in popularity of Linux and more apt to get on board the development bandwagon.
We have been using Linux for our company’s systems for the last 12 years and are very happy with its performance. High end applications sometimes give us some hiccups but nothing that can’t be corrected.