Researcher at the University of Oviedo in Spain estimate that the current Linux kernel is worth more than $1.3 billion.
Using the Constructive Cost Model 81 algorithm, Jesús García-García and Isabel Alonso d Magdaleno said that it would take 1,000 developers, making $41,700 a year, approximately 14 years to to recreate the Linux kernel.
According to a ComputerWorldUK story, the researchers were not trying to determine the actual value of the kernel, but “to give policymakers a greater appreciation of the potential benefits of community-based collaboration.”
The research is available here.
