@Chris_Lau I’ve been around (and somewhat involved with) the RepRap community for 3 something years, and I’ve been around the Linux community since late 1995, so I’ve got a long history of understanding how these things operate from the inside. There are some remarkable similarities, but there are also some huge divergences where they’re completely different. I’ve seen people come and go in each community (and others besides) as things happen.
FWIW: My background is Electronics -> Computing, which is why you’ll probably see me answering questions all the time in the electronics and RAMPS RepRap.org forums under the username of Cefiar.