Who Develops Linux?

[Ek0nomik]

I know Ubuntu was started by Mark Shuttleworth. I know he donated millions of dollars to get Ubuntu started. But who actually makes the Ubuntu distributions? How much are they getting paid, and who is still giving them money?

[Hortinstein]

i guess i have always wondered this too....

I have been watching the ubuntu scene for a while but only recently got my first dedicated ubuntu computer....vista basic was a nightmare, so i dont know much about linux at all

[nyinge]

Lots of info at wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_%28Linux_distribution%29). While you're there, check out about Canonical too.

[Ek0nomik]

I know about Wikipedia. ;)

I was looking for a more in depth answer. How many people are working on it? Are there any big names out of the Ubuntu developers? All the money is coming from Shuttleworth? Where is the incentive for him?

[floke]

Good info here

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu

[Ek0nomik]

Good info here

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu

I never find any humor in uncyclopedia.

[floke]

Oh dear :(

[nyinge]

I know about Wikipedia. ;)

I was looking for a more in depth answer. How many people are working on it? Are there any big names out of the Ubuntu developers? All the money is coming from Shuttleworth? Where is the incentive for him?

AFAIK... ok.. these are from my vague memory recollection... here's what I know. Canonical is the business entity behind Ubuntu, and yes the money is coming from Suttleworth. It's not profittable for Canonical yet, but according to them, it will be in the near future, as they push the desktop/server market harder into the corporate world. That's the incentive.

About 60 - 100 people working on the distro. Many fulltime.

[nyinge]

Good info here

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu

Thanks for the link :). Pretty hilarious

[SishGupta]

lolol the dev branch should always be called Wobbly Whale

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ubuntu_forks

[OffHand]

AFAIK... ok.. these are from my vague memory recollection... here's what I know. Canonical is the business entity behind Ubuntu, and yes the money is coming from Suttleworth. It's not profittable for Canonical yet, but according to them, it will be in the near future, as they push the desktop/server market harder into the corporate world. That's the incentive.

About 60 - 100 people working on the distro. Many fulltime.

No way... I f I remember correctly, there are about 12 paid developers working on Ubuntu.

There are many more devs working on the kernel and they are not being paid by Canonical.

[nyinge]

No way... I f I remember correctly, there are about 12 paid developers working on Ubuntu.

There are many more devs working on the kernel and they are not being paid by Canonical.
doh! I thought like 50 are paid. lol.. my bad. Good to know though.

[DoctorMO]

Ubuntu is a repackaging of many open source tools, the repackaging is mostly done by volunteers organising around conical and the apt repositories.

Open Source programs it's self is developed by thousands of paid and unpaid volunteers across the world. Including me.

[bonzodog]

Ubuntu is just one of about 140 Distributions of Linux.

Linux itself describes the kernel; everything else on top of that in userspace is the GNU toolset, which was put together by Richard Stallman and friends.

If you look at any typical linux Distribution build(default Install), you will notice that it is made up of anywhere between 150- 500 individual packages, that together make up the Operating system. Most of these packages have been built by developers either working for large corporations, or in some cases, an individual at home on his computer.

The Ubuntu Developers, who work for the Ubuntu Foundation, which is just one part of Canonical, are paid full time to put together what they consider to be the best combination of programs to make up the Distribution. Other distributions often use other software preferences.
The fact that the 12 to 15 developers of Ubuntu are paid is fairly unique - Only two other distributions have paid full time developers - Suse, and Redhat. Mark Shuttleworth has in this case given the Ubuntu foundation 10 million pounds to get it started, and fund it for the first few years. Yes, he is rich enough to do that.

Most Open Source software developers, however, do it voluntarily for the love of it. Some people write software at home at night after doing their paid jobs, or returning from college/Uni (there are a lot of very young developers, many of whom are still in full time education).

The greater majority of the Gnome environment is now developed by Suse and Ubuntu, who employ all of gnomes developers full time to Build what will hopefully be one of the best Desktop Environments currently available for any Operating System on the planet.

[Hobbsee]

they're ordinary people, too.

The last poster is right - there are about 72 MOTU and core devs - of course, a whole heap are inactive. Most arent paid, and do this in their spare time, or whatever.

Almost all of the people who put things into universe arent paid - the main ones tend to be.

A whole lot of canonical employees do support, and work on launchpad.

[23meg]

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=383265

[dmg025]

Good info here

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu

Haha...absolutely love it!