In a recent discussion on the Linux Kernel mailing list, it was asked "which companies are helping develop the kernel?" One response pointed out that that a recent article on lwn.net summarized this information nicely. Others pointed to a paper maintained by Greg KH, who responded:

"Yeah, but my paper didn't really track companies very well. The lwn.net article is the best, and below is my version of who did things in 2.6.23. Note, the lack of a company is not an indicator that they did nothing, just that I could not easily determine someone worked for them. I'll try to send out my 'who are you working for' emails in a week or so to see if I can further categorize the 'unknowns'."

According to Greg's email, organizations that contributed more than 100 changesets to the recently released 2.6.23 kernel included: Red Hat with 827 changesets (11.7%), IBM with 557 changesets (7.9%), the Linux Foundation with 528 changesets (7.5%), Novell with 449 changesets (6.3%), Intel with 242 changesets (3.4%), Oracle with 158 changesets (2.2%), MIPS Technologies with 143 changesets (2%), Nokia with 133 changesets (1.9%), and NetApp with 119 changesets (1.7%). Greg noted that there were a total of 7,075 changesets from 992 developers working for 126 different employers. 843 of the changesets (11.9%) were contributed by individuals reporting no sponsor for their work.

KernelTrap is actively seeking sponsorship for September and October of 2007.