Open Source not running short of developers

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 23 Feb 2005 at 11:37

The strong presence of open source developers on the payroll of commercial companies, does not undermine the integrity of the open source movement. Both Jollans and Weinberg agree that it doesn't matter who develops open source code, or what the motivation, contributions are only accepted into projects such as the Linux kernel based on the quality of the code.

Says Weinberg: 'It is a meritocracy. It follows the precepts of the Scientific Method. For the Linux kernel, there is an organised hierarchy in place that helps spread out the workload. A group of about 50 key developers oversee the final contribution of code to the kernel.'