this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2026
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Programming

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How many new lines of code does an average Linux kernel developer produce per year? (feddit.org)
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org to c/programming@programming.dev
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How many lines of code does an average Linux kernel developer produce per year?

Based on estimates of the value of the Linux kernel (around 2200 Million Euros in 2011), the size of the kernel (in 2011, version 2.6 was current, with a bit less than 20 million lines of code), and average salary of kernel developers (for Germany, one could estimate 60,000 - 80,000 EUR/year for a mid to senior embedded developer, you can go to kununu.de and look for salary statistics for larger companies like Siemens as a reference), one can estimate the lines of new code that a full-time kernel developer produces - less than 1000 lines per year:

 value=2200000000
 cost_man_year = 60000
 lines_of_code= 20000000

 person_years = value / cost_man_year
lines_per_person_per_year = lines_of_code / person_years

I get to 545 lines per person-year that way.

The interesting question is: You can obviously type that in in half an hour. What do these software developers actually do all day? ;->

Edit: Some people might get it wrong and overlook the πŸ˜‰ emoticon: I absolutely don't think you should or can measure the productivity or competence of a software developer by counting the lines he or she produces! Myself, I just fixed a bug after searching one whole week for it by uncommenting a single line ... in a two year old unfinished port of a software written 15 years ago to implement and port a niche industrial protocol created 18 years ago.

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[–] Enoril@jlai.lu 26 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Coding is the easiest part of the job and do not represent the main people activity.

Looking at the number of lines of code and thinking "they are only doing that" is like looking at any Mozart cues and thinking "he spent years to fill 50 pages of black dots?".

Coding is like creating music. It's not because you can write lines of code that the result will be a working solution.

You need to know your activity very well to be able to get the best from all the instruments you have in your hands.

Before coding any line, you had to THINK about the solution, find the best architecture, how to implement it without impacting in a negative way the product, detect the potential side effects, how to test in all the possible scenarios, how to maintain it, etc.

What you pay here is knowledge, experience, architect skills, coder, tester, troubleshooter, project management, devops, etc.

You pay highly skilled people who have the responsibility to not screw up all the servers infrastructure of the world, the brains of aircraft, cars, manufacturing tools, etc... And you don't want them going elsewhere as the knowledge ramp-up of any newcomers could take years.

This is where the salary goes. People brain.

[–] grandel@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah it's like the engineer who wrote a 10000 dollar bill for exchanging a single screw to his enraged customer:

  • Exchanging screw: 1 dollar
  • Knowing which screw to exchange: 9999 dollars

(It's a whole story, I don't remember exactly)

[–] HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

(It’s a whole story, I don’t remember exactly)

I'd be delighted to read it!

[–] grandel@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'd be delighted to read it!

Here you are, stranger:

https://engineerine.com/10000-dollar-chalk-mark/

[–] HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago

A really beautiful and touching story!

I think we owe these inventors and engineers who created our electricity system so much.

Their effort are today more important than ever, much more than they would have dreamed of. Consider this: Humanity is in a race for survival, a race to escape climate change. With 3 or 4 K of warming, civilization cannot survive. If we make it, electrical infrastructure will be a big part of the solution.

If you ever have grand-grand-grandchildren, five generations from now, they will likely be alive to a big part because of their efforts.

Thank you!