From the 'Modest Market Leader' files:

Linux vendor Red Hat (NYSE:RHT) was named in a study today by the Linux Foundation as being the top Linux kernel contribution company.

Red Hat had 12 percent of all change contributions, led by their key kernel contributors Ingo Molnar and David S. Miller. I reached out to Red Hat to get their take on their status, and they were somewhat humble in their position as the leaders in Linux.



"We are always pleased with these numbers, and given the large scale of resources we put into making Linux enterprise-ready, the numbers are not too surprising," Nick Carr, Red Hat marketing director wrote in an email to me. "We track activity numbers internally on an occasional basis, and know that Red Hat has been the leading contributor to the Linux kernel for many years."

Though Red Hat has been the leading contributor for years, as it turns out, being the leader is not a conscious status that Red Hat is chasing.