More Than a Gigabuck: Estimating GNU/Linux's Size
Summary
David Wheeler's 2001 paper analyzes the size of a typical GNU/Linux distribution (Red Hat Linux 7.1) by counting physical source lines of code across components and languages and then applying the basic COCOMO model to estimate development effort and cost. It highlights the Linux kernel as the largest component, documents licensing distributions dominated by GPL, and discusses implications for open source licensing and software reuse. The work also notes methodological choices and limits of SLOC counting.