Are there any estimates, surveys, etc. that shed light on how many
Linux programmers there are in the world? Is it 100,000, 1 million,
10 million?
There needs to be some sort of justification to get it accurate within
50% or so. Would the number change appreciably if any flavor of Unix
counted? |
Request for Question Clarification by
jjb-ga
on
30 Dec 2003 11:37 PST
Hi clb108,
By 'Linux programmers' do you mean programmers that contribute to the
core Linux operating system, or programmers who make programs that run
under linux?
Thanks,
jjb
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Clarification of Question by
clb108-ga
on
30 Dec 2003 12:42 PST
"Linux [Unix] programmers" to mean people who have written any
software that runs on Linux and certainly contributors to the core
Linux.
Basically, the broadest possible count of bona fide Linux programmers.
High school kids hacking out a small program on Linux does not count.
Must be in a professional capacity, or if working on a volunteer
basis, part of a real open source project.
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Request for Question Clarification by
jjb-ga
on
31 Dec 2003 11:15 PST
The only way I can think of to get even a rough number would be to get
a count of active users at sites like http://savannah.gnu.org/ and
http://sourceforge.net/, or through estimates from linux companies,
which seem to range between 3 million and 18 million, which is a
rather broad range.
Surveys by Evans Data Corp. find that the split between professional
windows developers and linux developers is pretty much 50/50, which,
while it doesn't give a total number does indicate that the number
should be prety high.
I hope that helps a little, in spite of not really answering the question,
jjb
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Request for Question Clarification by
pafalafa-ga
on
31 Dec 2003 11:50 PST
According to the Oracle website, there are 18 million Linux developers
in the world.
Unfortunately, they don't explain where the number comes from, nor do
they cite a source for the data.
Is this the kind of statistic you're looking for?
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Clarification of Question by
clb108-ga
on
31 Dec 2003 16:33 PST
It is certainly hard to believe that there are 18 million Linux
programmers. If that is true, where are they all? Would 1% of US
adults be programmers, that would be less than 2 million, so in that
case there would be 16 million outside the US? Somehow I don't believe
that.
I am looking for a reasonably accurate number that has justification
behind it, not just some marketing blurbage from a potentially biased
website
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