[16][17] As such the compilation has proven to be an important resource in developing various closed and open source operating systems, including Linux and FreeDOS.
The project is the result of the research and collaborative effort of more than 650 listed contributors worldwide over a period of 15 years, of which about 290 provided significant information (and some 55 of them even more than once).
Over the years, Michael A. Shiels, Timothy Patrick Farley, Matthias R. Paul, Robin Douglas Howard Walker, Wolfgang Lierz and Tamura Jones became major contributors to the project, providing information all over the list.
[1][nb 1] Brown and Paul also conducted several systematic surveys on specific hard- and software details among a number of dedicated user groups in order to validate some info and to help fill some gaps in the list.
The distribution file name was changed to include a version in the form INTERnyy (with n = issue number, and yy = 2-digit release year) in 1988.