I don't really see how this is surprising. In fact, the fact that non-paid contributions to the kernel is as high as 25% surprises me.<p>A criticism of Linux is that the kernel is largely developed on behalf of companies who care about certain use-cases over others.<p>This interview is quite insightful. It's with Con Kalivas, about why he quit as a kernel developer after trying to improve desktop performance:<p><a href="http://apcmag.com/interview_with_con_kolivas_part_1_computing_is_boring.htm" rel="nofollow">http://apcmag.com/interview_with_con_kolivas_part_1_computin...</a><p>"The developers were all developing for something that wasn't the desktop. They had all been employed by big name manufacturers who couldn't care less about the desktop (and still don't) but want their last 1% on their database benchmark or throughput benchmark or whatever."