Treffer: WHO IS AN OPEN SOURCE Software Developer?

his article presents a quantitative profile of a community of open source Linux developers, individuals submitting non-juried contributions to a repository of Linux materials. The study showed the systems and applications categories are by far the largest areas of contribution and games has relatively few contributions. This indicates that in this most open archive with a very low technical barrier, contributions participate in challenging and rewarding technical solutions rather than simple diversions. Linux developers who contribute to the archives are generally a serious type of individual. With the continuing success of Linux, it is concluded that this passionate engagement has resulted in very good and very widely used code. Obviously it is sustainable and produced by a broad community. The community producing the archives is not an academic one separate from commerce, nor is it U.S.-centric, it is global and commercial. The widespread impact thus far from the work of contributors to the archives from around the globe speaks especially to the remarkable power of a global Internet in connecting communities of people with common interests and goals. Open source developers are taking advantage of that transforming power today, signaling a bright future for open source communities as a basis for developing and evolving software for the global Internet.