Daily Archives: Saturday, October 3, 2015

  • Linux kernel is 24 years young on Monday

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

    Although Linus Torvalds, the originator of the Linux kernel, announced his initial work on the kernel on 25th August 1991, it was not until 5th October 1991 that Linus actually released his code: Linux kernel 0.01.

    Linus Torvalds gives a photographer the finger
    Linus Torvalds in combative mood

    With this October anniversary in mind, it’s worth taking a bit of time to review what’s changed to the kernel over the intervening years.

    Version 0.01 of the kernel had 10,293 lines of code. In contrast, version 4.1, released in July 2015, has more than 19 million lines of code, according to Phoronix. That’s quite spectacular!

    The current Linux kernel is the result of one of the largest collaborative projects ever attempted and since tracking began 10 years ago, more than 10,000 developers working from more than 1,200 companies have contributed to the kernel.

    Furthermore, the speed of Linux kernel development is breathtaking. The average number of changes accepted into the kernel per hour is 7.71, equivalent to 185 changes every day and nearly 1,300 per week.

    This rapid development and collaboration have been a spur to others. Writing yesterday on the Linux Foundation blog, Jennifer Cloer states: “In recent years, the powerful growth of the Linux kernel and resulting innovation has inspired others to adapt the principles, practices and methodologies that makes Linux so successful to solve some of today’s most complex technology problems,” and, “We’ve learned so much from Linux and have no doubt that learning will continue.”

    Originally posted on Bristol Wireless.

  • ODF is a “financial and social responsibility”

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Open Standards, Politics, Tech

    ODF logoThe Dutch government wants to accelerate the adoption of Open Document Format by the country’s public sector according to a press release by the government’s Standardisation Board.

    On behalf of the government, the Standardisation Board is determined to speed up ODF’s adoption throughout the government.

    This was one of the most important announcements made at the 11th ODF Plugfest held in The Hague, where a group of international developers, EU policy-makers, digital archivists, academics and other experts assembled to discuss the Open Document Format, an XML-based file format for spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents that was developed with the aim of providing an open, XML-based file format specification for office applications.

    “In view of its extent, the public sector is an important stakeholder when a sound future for office applications is involved”, says Steven Luitjens, the director of Logius, the largest operational IT organisation within the Dutch government. “It is our financial and social responsibility to bring about an improvement. We are therefore increasing our efforts in the Netherlands. We want to play an important role in the huge transition from commercial productivity packages to better, bespoke solutions based on open standards which lies ahead of governments and the private sector.”

    ODF is top priority

    “The need to adopt ODF speaks for itself,” says Nico Westpalm van Hoorn, Chairman of the Standardisation Board, which is concerned with the choice of IT standards for the government. “However, the adoption is proceeding too slowly. ODF is therefore out top priority”.