10 Linux Kernel & Open Source Facts

10 Facts About Open Source and the Linux Kernel

10 Facts About Open Source and the Linux Kernel10 Facts About Open Source and the Linux Kernel

The kernel serves as the foundation for Linux, which runs most of the public cloud. Find out how extensively the open source community supports it.

Dominant PresenceDominant Presence

The Linux operating system runs 90% of the public cloud workload, 62% of the embedded market share, and 99% of the supercomputer market share.

Massive CollaborationMassive Collaboration

Since 2005, an estimated 15,600 developers from more than 1,400 companies have contributed to the kernel.

Change AgentsChange Agents

In its history, the kernel has seen 83,000 change sets merged from 4,319 individual developers representing 519 corporations.

Patched Up, Part IPatched Up, Part I

More than 12,000 patches go into each kernel release.

Patched Up, Part IIPatched Up, Part II

Within the 406 days covered by the report, nearly 83,000 patches were implemented into the kernel.

Accelerated ActivityAccelerated Activity

The kernel currently undergoes 8.5 patches an hour, up from 7.8 patches per hour from roughly a year ago.

Snowball EffectSnowball Effect

The kernel now represents nearly 25 million lines of code. It started with 10,000.

Prolific TeamProlific Team

The kernel community adds just over 15 files and nearly 7,500 lines of code every day.

Top ContributorTop Contributor

Intel has contributed the most to the Linux kernel during this reporting period, with 10,833 changes – or just over 13% of the total changes.

Other Top ContributorsOther Top Contributors

Volunteer contributors: 6,819 changes

Red Hat: 5,965

Linaro: 4,636

Dennis McCafferty
Dennis McCafferty
Dennis McCafferty is a contributor to CIO Insight. He covers topics such as IT leadership, IT strategy, collaboration, and IT for businesses.

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