The Linux Foundation has found that the number of developers putting work into the Linux kernel is growing fast, tripling over the past three years. Over that period, the number of individual contributors has doubled. Linux is being used more often as the firmware found in consumer electronics, and now more than 70 percent of all kernel development is done by paid professionals.

I'm not sure why the silly notion that "Only .10068% of Linux kernel developers are paid" keeps circulating, but it does. So, let me just say, once and for all, Linux is written, for the most part, by paid software engineers and programmers from major American corporations.

Unless you have been living under a tree, you are aware of the fact that money in the Linux market by and large appears to be coming from the mobile market. Despite efforts from developers and various companies alike, the fact remains that it is the mobile development world that is gaining the bulk of the Linux developers out there.

It must be maddening to believe you command developer loyalties and lead legions worldwide, then watch developers flock to the Linux kernel. Maddening, that is, if you're Microsoft. Why does Microsoft say its patents cover Linux, while at the same time reaching out to other open source code projects? It's the Linux kernel development process.

Linus Torvalds, Andrew Morton and eighty other important kernel developers are now debating how they plan to proceed with the future development of Linux at the Kernel Summit 2008 in Portland, Oregon.

In the early days, the project was conceived as a way of getting fresh blood into Linux kernel development by giving new developers fairly simple but generally useful tasks and hoping they'd move more into the mainstream. Currently this process doesn't work very well. Some think bug finding and reporting would do better.

The Linux kernel is surrounded by hundreds of interested parties. How is it that none of them gains a commanding influence over the kernel's development priorities?HP, IBM, Oracle. Google, eBay and Intel each has a primary stake in Linux and employs kernel developers. Does this mean money talks when it comes to Linux? If not, why not?

The Linux kernel project's "git" revision control tool offers up some numbers on which developers, and which companies, contributed the most code to Linux, and who's reviewing other people's code.

After the release of Linux 2.6.27, kernel developers are currently busily integrating patches for the next kernel version into the main development branch of Linux. This usually involves discarding some old code and adding new code though on balance, there are usually more new lines than old ones, making the kernel grow continually.