News Linux kernel source expands beyond 40 million lines – it has doubled in size in a decade

That number is a bogus metric. Blank lines and comments are not code and don't count. Anything skipped over by the compiler (discounting the if/then/else compiler directives) and not turned into executable code also doesn't count.
How far can one shrink the size for particular system setup to maintain some flexibility with USB hardware?
 
It's more an issue with the Linux monolithic kernel design. All the drivers and hardware support have to be built directly into it. Contrast it to a micro kernel where everything is a module that gets loaded dynamically.
 
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