Sunday, October 26, 2008

We're using billion dollars worth of open source distributions

ສະບາຍດີ,
It looks like we are heading in the right direction. Our products seem to be quite priceless after all.

From linuxfoundation.org (http://www.linuxfoundation.org/publications/estimatinglinux.php):

The Linux operating system is the most successful open source project in history, but just how much is the software in a Linux distribution “worth”? In 2002, David A. Wheeler published a well-regarded study that examined the Software Lines of Code present in a typical Linux distribution. His findings? The total development cost represented in a typical Linux distribution was $1.2 billion. We’ve used his tools and method to update these findings. Using the same tools, we estimate that it would take approximately $10.8 billion to build the Fedora 9 distribution in today’s dollars, with today’s software development costs. Additionally, it would take $1.4 billion to develop the Linux kernel alone. This paper outlines our technique and highlights the latest costs of developing Linux.