--- title: Medium | daily.dev description: A breakdown of the biggest open source projects in the world, measured across multiple dimensions: lines of code, contributor count, GitHub stars, corporate... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/medium-evbgneets twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Medium | daily.dev og:description: A breakdown of the biggest open source projects in the world, measured across multiple dimensions: lines of code, contributor count, GitHub stars, corporate... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/medium-evbgneets og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/EvBGneeTS.png og:image:alt: Medium og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Medium **[Medium](https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js)** · 9 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A breakdown of the biggest open source projects in the world, measured across multiple dimensions: lines of code, contributor count, GitHub stars, corporate backing, and commercial dependency. The Linux kernel leads by codebase size (40+ million lines) and contributor count (2,000+ per release cycle), with Kubernetes second by contributors and Chromium leading in commercial browser dependency. The post also covers AI open source tools like Hugging Face Transformers and explains how different measurement methods yield different rankings. It concludes with a promotional note about GitHub marketing strategies for developer tool companies. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How many lines of code does the Linux kernel have? The Linux kernel surpassed 40 million lines of source code in early 2025, roughly double what it was a decade earlier. Its size comes largely from hardware support, including drivers for thousands of devices across x86, ARM, RISC-V, and other architectures, alongside filesystems, networking stacks, and security subsystems. _Developers tracking how massive infrastructure projects evolve can follow codebase and ecosystem trends on daily.dev._ ### Which open source project has the most contributors after the Linux kernel? Kubernetes has the second largest contributor base among open source projects, with over 83,000 unique contributors historically according to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. It reached that scale much faster than Linux did, largely because cloud computing adoption accelerated quickly after its 2014 release. _Anyone weighing which cloud-native project to invest time in can compare contributor momentum on daily.dev._ ### Why is Chromium considered one of the biggest open source projects despite having fewer contributors than Linux? Chromium has one of the largest real-world dependency footprints of any codebase because it powers Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, and several other browsers. A majority of the world's internet browsing runs through some Chromium-derived engine, even though its contributor count trails both Linux and Kubernetes. _Developers deciding which browser engine dependencies to trust can weigh reach versus contributor scale on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [What to expect for open source in 2026](https://daily.dev/posts/what-to-expect-for-open-source-in-2026-mwjch4dcn) · GitHub Blog · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [How AI is changing open source](https://daily.dev/posts/how-ai-is-changing-open-source-zruowwd5n) · InfoWorld · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Introducing the OSSCAR Index](https://daily.dev/posts/introducing-the-osscar-index-jofl1vwi9) · Supabase · 63 upvotes · 2 comments - [Self-Host Weekly \(31 October 2025\)](https://daily.dev/posts/self-host-weekly-31-october-2025--qdltswbhe) · selfh.st · 15 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#github](https://daily.dev/tags/github), [#kubernetes](https://daily.dev/tags/kubernetes), [#chromium](https://daily.dev/tags/chromium) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/medium-evbgneets) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Medium","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/medium-evbgneets","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/medium-evbgneets"},"datePublished":"2026-07-24T11:52:26.589Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T18:28:03.298Z","description":"A breakdown of the biggest open source projects in the world, measured across multiple dimensions: lines of code, contributor count, GitHub stars, corporate...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d6ab0a9a223ee01bc82d647f54feb2d2?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d6ab0a9a223ee01bc82d647f54feb2d2?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Medium","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Medium","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/medium","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/medium-evbgneets","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"open-source,linux,github,kubernetes,chromium","timeRequired":"PT9M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Medium","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Medium"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/medium-evbgneets#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How many lines of code does the Linux kernel have?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The Linux kernel surpassed 40 million lines of source code in early 2025, roughly double what it was a decade earlier. 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