Top Linux Devs Losing The Will To Code?

[HardOCP News]

ComputerWorld seems to think that core Linux developers are losing the will to code.

In the latest kernel release the most active 30 developers authored only 30% of the changes, while two years ago the top 20 developers did 80% of the changes, he said. Kroah-Hartman himself is now doing more code reviewing than coding. "That's all I do, is read patches these days," he said during a discussion at the Linux Symposium in Ottawa last month.

 

[RoBo]

Bullshits I hope. If not;

 

[CodeX]

Linux is pretty stagnant if you ask me, it will never gain widespread market penetration. I don't even see the point of it, it's a novelty, nothing more

 

[Shotglass01]

Linux is pretty stagnant if you ask me, it will never gain widespread market penetration. I don't even see the point of it, it's a novelty, nothing more

Did you even bother to read the article? I'm don't think so.

Sounds to me like it's just going too fast for the tops devs to maintain themselves. I'm holding back from saying Linux will explode on the desktop, but I've seen a lot of good changes in it over the years. I do wish the community would (please do not knife me for saying this) *gasp* standardize on certain things. Often times I have a difficult time finding exactly what I need in different distro's because it is so open and is easily customized.

 

[RoBo]

Linux has it's features, I see there being more use for it in Routers ect than a main OS.

 

[drlava]

As the base of contributing programmers grows, I expect the most experienced devs to do more code review and patch applying from these contributors, and less coding themselves. This is a good, healthy thing, don't see the problem here.

 

[ir0nw0lf]

This exactly the kind of ammo that Microsoft is looking for to bash the Linux community. The article was a bit over-reactive IMO, I don't see what the big deal is. But that won't stop MS.

 

[Old_Way]

As the base of contributing programmers grows, I expect the most experienced devs to do more code review and patch applying from these contributors, and less coding themselves. This is a good, healthy thing, don't see the problem here.

I'm not a Linux user, but this is what I was thinking too. As more people are able to write good code, the amount any one person will contribute has to decline. I'm just glad there's good people checking the code. Linux may not ever replace Windows, but I'm sure it will continue to take over many niche markets and be the standard in those.

 

[dweigert]

I've just gotten back from OLS. I actually saw the talk that was reported on in the article, and can tell you that the first few paragraphs of the CW article are misleading. Linux is *Definitely* experiencing a healthy growth with the new development model. Think of it this way, the lead developers are guiding development and making sure that crap doesn't make it into the kernel. The subsystem maintainers are doing their jobs. Of course they don't code as much as they used to, they have far more people from all over the world submitting code for review. The subsystem maintainers are the arbiters of 'Good Taste" and overall coding style. They can reject things that don't feel or look right, and propose changes to the patches to make them better. Go look at http://linuxsymposium.org. there is a link on the first page to all of the papers from this year.