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Linux developer base boosting up

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CIOL Bureau
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SAN FRANCISCO, US: The Linux Foundation, the non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced that it has released an update to its April 2008 study on Linux kernel development.

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The August 2009 Update reprises the title "Linux Kernel Development: How Fast is it Going, Who is doing it and Who is Sponsoring it?" is written by original authors and kernel developers Jonathan Corbet and Greg Kroah-Hartman, and the Linux Foundation's Amanda McPherson.

This community paper illustrates a large and distributed developer and corporate community that supports the expansion and innovation of Linux. The Linux kernel has become a common resource developed on a massive scale by companies who are fierce competitors in other areas.

Every Linux kernel is being developed by nearly 1,000 developers working for more than 200 different corporations. This is the  foundation for the largest distributed software development project in the world, said a press release.

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The updated study finds that since April 2008, there has been a 10 percent increase in the number of developers contributing to each kernel release and that a net of 2.7 million lines of code have been added.

This level of activity has resulted in an average of 5.45 patches being accepted per hour, an increase of 42 percent since the original study.

Some of the accelerated pace of development can be attributed to new demand for Linux in emerging markets, such as netbooks, auto and energy, as well as to the establishment of the new linux-next tree (a staging area for the next kernel cycle that enables the development process to scale more rapidly).

Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation said, "This paper shows that the pace of Linux development continues to grow, with more individuals and more companies supporting Linux kernel development with every release cycle.”

He further added that with the increasing use of Linux in new markets and the dedication of the development community and corporate sponsors, the number of contributors would continue to grow, ensuring a vibrant ecosystem to support the platform.

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