Microsoft Gets Recognition Among Top 20 Linux Kernel Contributors

Microsoft Gets Recognition Among Top 20Linux Kernel Contributors

The Linux Foundation announced the top Linux kernel development contributors, with Microsoft getting on the list for the first time. The top 10 contributors to the Linux kernel in this latest report include "Red Hat, Intel, Novell, IBM, Texas Instruments, Broadcom, Nokia, Samsung, Oracle and Google," according to the report. For the first time, Microsoft has made the list of the top 20 contributors to the Linux kernel.Microsoft placed at No. 17 among companies that have contributed the most toward developing theLinux OS's kernel. As the Linux Foundation's announcement pointed out, it represents quite a change from the time when Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called Linux "a cancer" is now working within the collaborative development model to support its virtualization efforts and its customers. Because Linux has reached a state of ubiquity, in which both the enterprise and mobile computing markets are relying on the operating system, Microsoft is clearly working to adapt. In other words, some might recall the old adage:"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.". The foundation suggested that Microsoft is "clearly working to adapt" in a world where Linux is used across enterprise and mobile environments.
The foundation's latest report, "Linux Kernel Development: How Fast It is Going, Who is Doing It, What They are Doing and Who is Sponsoring It," covers work completed through the Linux kernel 3.2 release, with an emphasis on the releases made since the last update to this report in December 2010 (2.6.36 to 3.2). 

Since 2005, there have been more than 7,800 developers contributing to the Linux kernel, according to the announcement. The foundation also claimed that "75 percent" of Linux kernel developers get paid for doing it. The full report, "Linux Kernel Development: How Fast It is Going. To Download the full report clickHere