Big Business backs Linux

[Samuel Thurston]

On Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 11:33 PM, Fred A. Miller <fmiller at lightlink.com> wrote:
> Big Business backs Linux
>
> Open-source software development has become corporate software development.
> Deal with it.

I guess i'm surprised this is news.  Greg Kroah-Hartmann has been
giving talks at LPC for years where he breaks down the contributors,
and it's been that way for some time.  However the numbers don't
*really* support the story: "unknown," academics, and TLF, probably
consultants too, would all fit the label of individuals. combined they
total 11.6% and would be the second largest contributor.

Also I think it's important to note that these numbers are pure
patch-commit-count and don't address size or complexity of the patches
at all.

GKH may be familiar to you for raising a stink about the fact that
canonical was FAR down the list a few years ago despite having a
business model that depended upon the kernel similarly to Red Hat.  It
is my understanding that this situation has improved somewhat since.

I'll be watching the Novell number closely over the next year
myself... but I expect their contribution to increase, as MS attempts
to poison the well... err... embrace and extend.