Re: Software Bugs and Complexity

Subject: Re: Software Bugs and Complexity
From: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 14:11:33 -0800

Dan Emory wrote:
>
> I recommend to you the following article, found in today's LA Times. You
> can find it at:
> http://www.latimes.com/business/cutting/20001127/t000113753.html


Thanks for the lead. You'll excuse me if I don't answer your pop
quiz, though; I'd have to ride too many of my pet hobby horses. :-)

Instead, I'll ride another one:

One point that the article doesn't address is that free software and
open source software is supposed to address this problem. The
argument is that, if the code is freely available, then problems are
discovered and corrected more quickly. This claim is widely believed
and repeated, and it's probably the main reason why free and open
source software is spreading.

At the very least, the article should have mentioned it. However, I
would be even more interested in seeing an an analysis or challenge
of the claim. So far as I know, it's never actually been tested. The
logic seems reasonable enough, but I wonder if the practice would
be, too.


--
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
Contributing Editor, Maximum Linux
604.421.7189 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com

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They've loosed the nutters in the Underground,
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