2.5 KiB
Android-Friendly Linux Code Gets Big Boost From Mobile Companies
There was a time — not so long ago — when Google’s Android was decidedly not Linux.
Google hackers modified the Linux kernel to build their dream mobile operating system, but the changes they made weren’t getting picked up by the folks who ran the Linux kernel project. But early last year, Google and the Linux community patched things up, and according to a new analysis of the Linux kernel, it shows.
Last year, contributions from mobile companies accounted for just 4.4 percent of the Linux kernel, according to the Linux Foundation’s annual survey of Linux contributions. Now, it’s more like 11 percent.
And Google itself has jumped from Linux’s number-10 code contributor to number eight. Back in 2009, Google ranked number 19. The top three companies are (in order) Red Hat, Intel, and Texas Instruments.
Last year, Microsoft was a top contributor, but it has faded away now that it’s completed most of the work to make its Hyper-V virtualization software work with Linux.
Then kernel came under fire earlier this year for fostering a communications style that some call plainspoken, others abusive. That came to a head when Intel developer Sarah Sharp called out Linux leader Linus Torvalds on the Kernel mailing list. She told us later that Linuxland sometimes fosters a culture that “just doesn’t work for people who aren’t men.”
Sharp estimates that between 1 and 3 percent kernel developers are women. Whether that number is growing or shrinking, though, we don’t know. The Linux Foundation data doesn’t track the gender or race of Linux contributors.
via: http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/09/linux/
译者：[Mr小眼儿][] 校对：校对者ID