According to a recent report conducted by the Linux Foundation, Red Hat has been recognised ahead of open source advocates IBM and Novell as the most active contributor to the ongoing development of the Linux Kernel.

Nick Carr points out a report from the Linux Foundation that finds that most contributions to the Linux kernel come from people who work at companies. Nick Carr says this is a sign of a "shift from the volunteer to the corporate model," which I think misses the point on a couple of different levels.

Insisting that they have "repeatedly found them to be detrimental to Linux users, businesses, and the greater Linux ecosystem," today the Linux kernel community has started petitioning for open-source modules and open-source drivers for the Linux kernel.

Have a look at Linux kernel source from a bird's eye view. The Linux kernel is one of the most mysterious open source projects. There is a lot of documentation, however it is still a difficult subject to comprehend. The Interactive Linux kernel map is intended to help people gain an overview of the structure and interactions of the Linux Kernel.

We, the undersigned Linux kernel developers, consider any closed-source Linux kernel module or driver to be harmful and undesirable. We have repeatedly found them to be detrimental to Linux users, businesses, and the greater Linux ecosystem.

Yesterday we reported on the Linux Foundation's message they have issued on the behalf of more than 140 kernel developers: Binary-only kernel modules are harmful and undesirable. While no vendor was singled out in this message, the biggest hardware manufacturer that has yet to provide any real level of open-source support is NVIDIA Corporation.

Despite frequent speculation that corporate financing is dangerous to the ethos of the open source software (OSS) community, most Australian open source developers don't see payment as a primary influence on their contributions, a straw poll of attendees at Linux.conf.au in Melbourne suggests.

The Linux kernel is the beating heart of any Linux distribution. It is a strange and complex beast and to many people somewhat mystical in nature. I intend to shed light on some of that mystical shroud and show how simple and easy compiling a Linux kernel really is.

Don Marti attended Greg Kroah-Hartman's Linux Symposium talk on the kernel development process; he wrote an informative article (titled Linux contributor base broadens) about it. The article states: