Would you believe me if I told you that 70% of Linux kernel development is performed by PAID employees in commercial enterprise? It’s true.
If you’re a Linux user, does that make you mad? Does that make you hang your head in shame?
It shouldn’t.
Personally speaking I was really happy to discover this. It means that big-biz has a definite interest in keeping Linux alive and productive in enterprise environments. It ensures that Linux as a whole will stick around for a very long time.
By nature, Linux fans are very anti-corporate. Purists want absolutely nothing to do with corporate initiatives and would rather have everything as a strict volunteer unpaid effort.
Big-biz has spoken otherwise. People are getting paid for Linux development and it’s far outweighing the volunteer effort.
Get used to it.
There is good and bad to both but I think it is a good thing that 70% of kernel development is nonvolunteer. That will speeed development and make sure certain features are included in the kernel.
I’m pretty sure most people using linux and other open-source softwares know this already.