More and more open-source developers these days are employees of companies, paid to work on open-source projects, rather than independent programmers doing it for fun. The change raises issues for projects, programmers and employers alike.

More and more open-source developers these days are employees of companies, paid to work on open-source projects, rather than independent programmers doing it for fun. The change raises issues for projects, programmers and employers alike.

"Yesterday, Linux-Watch released some figures that demonstrate how much of work toward the development of the Linux kernel has been contributed by paid professionals hired by large, profit-seeking corporations."

The Linux Foundation has found that the number of developers putting work into the Linux kernel is growing fast, tripling over the past three years. Over that period, the number of individual contributors has doubled. Linux is being used more often as the firmware found in consumer electronics, and now more than 70 percent of all kernel development is done by paid professionals.

While Microsoft Windows is built by an army of the software giant's paid engineers, Linux is written by a community of contributors. Yet, joining that community isn't as easy e-mailing a piece of code to, say, Linus Torvalds, the OS's originator.

The Linux world makes much of its community roots, but when it comes to developing the kernel of the operating system, it's less a case of "volunteers ahoy!" and more a case of "where's my pay?".

Developers and programmers are always the earliest adopters of technology, paving the way for the rest of us. And nowhere is that more evident than with Linux. Over the last 10 years, developers have brought Linux in through the back door and sold its benefits up the corporate flagpole. And successfully so.

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One thing that keeps Linux in the back foot is the lack of good quality applications that can compete with the best out there. The advent of paid softwares section in Ubuntu Software Center is a start, things like that can kick start application development for Linux in a big way. But things were not as bad I thought it would be.