Seven Wonders of the IT World
The fastest supercomputer. The most intriguing data center. The constantly changing core at the heart of Linux. Take a tour of the most impressive and most unusual marvels of the IT world.
Biggest Paradigm Change in Enterprise Software:
Linux kernel
Created by: Linus Torvalds, in 1991, helping open-source developers collectively craft a viable alternative to Microsoft operating systems.
Number of developers: Total since 1991 is unknown; 3,200 developers for the kernel as of release 2.6.22.
New releases: Every 2.6 months.*
Quick change artists: 2.89 changes made to the kernel every hour.
Lines of code: 8.2 million and growing (about 10 percent per year).
Amount of code added every hour: 85.63 lines.
Revenue diverted from Microsoft: Perhaps only Mr. Gates knows.
*Unless otherwise marked, statistics reflect Linux kernel releases of the past 2.5 years (version 2.6.11 through 2.6.21).


