Contributors To The X Server

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Contributors To The X Server

Since our article yesterday entitled X Server 1.4.1 Is Released, No Joke where we shared that the X.Org server update -- a critical part of the Linux desktop -- was released albeit significantly late and the blocker bug list wasn't even cleared, it's sparked discussions on our forums and other online communities on how the X.Org release management can be improved and how new developers can become involved. One of the most common recommendations has been to get more software (distribution) vendors involved, seeing as they are the ones shipping X.Org to many of the desktop users around the world. However, as there hasn't been a list (or at least not in some time) that looks at each of the commits to the X server in regards to each of the companies and the developers involved, we've provided one in this article that covers all X Server activity going back nine years.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12471

[yoshi314]

congrats to redhat and intel, others should take them as an example to follow.

ati and nvidia turn out worst, especially because they're making graphics cards. let's hope they make it up in the future.

[deanjo]

It does show off how important the corporate $$ can be important to success of a FOSS project.

[bridgman]

Are the 3d-related components (mesa/mesa, mesa/drm) included in the numbers ? It is not in the X.org tree, so I imagine it is not.

I don't want to start another bun-fight about whether 3d should be considered part of X, just curious

[Michael]

Originally Posted by bridgman

Are the 3d-related components (mesa/mesa, mesa/drm) included in the numbers ? It is not in the X.org tree, so I imagine it is not.

I don't want to start another bun-fight about whether 3d should be considered part of X, just curious

No, as mentioned in the article, it's just xserver that was counted... No Mesa, no drivers, no libraries, nothing else. It would be fun and give a better perspective if all of xorg* was counted, but that would take a lot more work... I have written scripts to automate it, but the part that consumes the most time is sorting it / associating the developer with the company they work for, etc. Plus some developers over the years have committed from 3+ different email addresses, added or removed their middle initial from their git name, shortened their first name, etc.

[bridgman]

Ahh, I missed that, sorry. No drivers either... that makes sense then.

Trust me, you wouldn't have wanted me making changes to X last year. This year, who knows

Must have been a lot of work collating all that info. Nicely done.

[timofonic]

The next most interesting thing would be Mesa for example. Maybe there can be some volunteer about it.

If you release the scripts to the public, maybe some volunteer could do the work for you. Maybe it can be converted in the future into an automated statistics site about xorg/mesa contributors.

[Vadi]

Nicely done, and nice to see pretty much all vendors contributing.

[joshuapurcell]

Thanks for putting this together... getting this info together at this point in the discussion is sure to help the project become more organized.

[Michael]

I guess I'll start working on one for Mesa tonight...