“While Linus Torvalds’ name is synonymous with the Linux kernel, Al Viro’s may be one day, too. Viro has contributed 1571 changes to the kernel, which sits at the core of the Linux operating system, over the past three years, according to a new report from the Linux Foundation. That’s more than any other individual developer, the report states. In contrast, Torvalds, the kernel’s creator and steward, contributed 495 changes. Viro couldn’t be reached for comment about the report.”
Achievement that all of these companies and people can contribute like this in such a way. It’s amazing Linux is not up there with with some of the greatest achievements of all time.
Does the desktop market really matter, because to me what Linux has achieved is something of a huge landmark in computing and the internet’s history.
It sure is amazing. Thousands of people all across the world have been working on the kernel, some because they are paid and some just for a hobby, and still, they have managed to create a very good, modular and scalable kernel suitable for a modern OS.
This is collaboration between people at its best: no religious conflicts, no national conflicts or anything such, just working together to create something useable by all.
Here is the original paper :
https://www.linux-foundation.org/publications/linuxkerneldevelopment…
And I’m proud to be one of them, on my very limited, modest and amateurish level 😉
Linux rocks, best OS ever.
No, Linux rocks, best kernel stuff. You still need userland stuff of some kind, for an OS.
Is is just me that isn’t overly amazed by these figures?
I can only compare against ReactOS, as that’s what I work on, but 1571 seems quite normal for a core developer.
The only fair comparison I can give is Alex Ionescu as he worked exclusivly on the ros kernel, with 1854 commits in around 2.5 years.
I’m actually more amazed at how little Linus has contributed.
In numerous interviews Linus has stated these days he doesn’t get to do a lot of kernel hacking. He spends most of the time just doing admin stuff like sorting or approving/denying patches etc. someone has to do it and with a project as big as Linux it’s a must.
Don’t forget git.
Its really hard to nail down good ways to measure somebodies contributions, 1571 changes IS probably a lot of work, but how many lines were changed?
On the other hand, small changes sometimes take a long time to track down…. its just hard to measure peoples contributions.
Some people prefer to contribute their work in big patches, others prefer many smaller patches. – Ive noticed this also varies from project to project.
Linus has stated that he does not work on the code that much anymore and more on the organising of patching (accepting and rejecting) so comparing their code input seems mute.
EDIT: Just relised this was stated a few comments up. sorry
Edited 2008-04-02 21:47 UTC
I don’t usually run around correcting people’s usage of words because it can easily be mistaken for rudeness. But this error is common enough that maybe it might be helpful and constructive to point it out:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/moot
Back on topic… I thought it was a bit odd that the author thought that the number of Lines of code written by Linus compared to other devs was at all interesting. It is well known that Linus has long been relegated primarily to a higher level role. I doubt he would be offended by the author’s observation, though.
lol thought i got it wrong but i had to bash it out while i was at work
not rude at all.
I hope he continues to contribute without seeking the ‘fame’ it can bring. The reason I say this is that its inevitable that he will be drawn into the politics.
Linus, for example, already wades into things that have no bearing on what is the basis of his fame (the linux Kernal).
Developers should never be allowed to talk to customers 😉
“While Linus Torvalds’ name is synonymous with the Linux kernel, Al Viro’s may be one day, too. Viro has contributed 1571 changes to the kernel, which sits at the core of the Linux operating system…”
You said “Linux kernel”, then you said “Linux operating system.” The operating system name should be synonymous with Richard Stallman, by all rights, by all right now.
When coding a computer, the variable name you choose stands for a memory location for the compiler. Lets remember to call it the GNU/Linux OS. Lets not name it Linux_OS. The actual data at the name/address we call GNU/Linux is the string “Richard Stallman”, the root of a structure in memory called GNU.
If you find this particular OSnews article interesting, you are going to love this one by Richard Stallman himself about why a name is important:
http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html