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Master on Free Software
Contributors turnover
Dynamics of the libre software community
Israel Herraiz<herraiz@gsyc.es>
A Coruña, November 17th 2007
Master on Free Software
Summary
● How sensible is a project to the turnover of its main contributors?
● What would happen to Linux if Linus Torvalds is hit by a bus?
● What if the most important developers of Debian abandon the project and go for Ubuntu?
Master on Free Software
Main contributors
● 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people
Master on Free Software
Top contributors go away
● What would happen?● Are they “code gods”?
Master on Free Software
Methodology
● Divide the history in 10 intervals● Identify the top contributors in each
period● Track the history of those contributors in
all the history of the project
Master on Free Software
Methodology
● Results are given as plots and indexes
Master on Free Software
Generations index
Group 1 10 7 6 5 4Group 2 4 9 5 2 1Group 3 2 8 14 3 2Group 4 0 1 1 9 4Group 5 0 0 0 8 20
Period 1Period 2Period 3Period 4Period 5
● Absolute Matrix
Master on Free Software
Generations index
Master on Free Software
Kind of projects: code gods
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Code gods. Heatmap of the matrix
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Code gods. 3D Maps. Relative.
Master on Free Software
Code gods. 3D Map. Absolute
Master on Free Software
Kind of projects: generational relay
Master on Free Software
Generations. Heatmap
Master on Free Software
Generations. 3D Map. Relative
Master on Free Software
Generations. 3D Map. Absolute
Master on Free Software
Kind of projects: mixed behaviour
Master on Free Software
Mixed behaviour. Heatmap
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Mixed behaviour. 3D Map. Relative
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Mixed behaviour. 3D Map. Absolute
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Summarising
● Three kind of projects:– Code gods
● Index ~ 100 %
– Generational relay● 0 % < Index < 100 %
– Mixed behaviour● Index ~ 0 %
Master on Free Software
Age vs. Index
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Index distribution
Master on Free Software
Conclusions
● Detection of events in projects. Reverse engineering of the history of the project.
● Index gives us the kind of project● Most of the projects show a generational
relay● So most of the projects are not sensible to
contributor turnovers
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