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Ask About Proprietary vs. Open Source Code Quality

Posted by Roblimo on from the bugstomping dept.

Scott Trappe is CEO of Reasoning, a company that has gained a certain amount of noteriety (and a Slashdot mention) by running its Ilumna automated inspection service on several versions of TCP/IP -- and concluding that the Linux version has fewer bugs than most proprietary ones. Why is this? Let's ask Scott, and also ask him any other question you can think of about software quality and how to achieve it since, after all, that's his business. We'll send him 10 of the highest-moderated questions and post his answers when we get them back.

4 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Results... by User+956 · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    So how much is Linus paying you to come up with these results?

    --
    The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
  2. Open. Source. Fucking. Sucks. by Ricky+M.+Waite · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    What is it you GNU zealots do not understand? "Open Source" is a flawed ideal. It is like communism, only communism works when you have someone like Stalin breathing down your throat. I say we make a Stalinist OS movement. "Code or I'll fucking murder you." Kick ass. I'll call it Open Stalin.

    --

    We wave the flag of freedom as we conquer and invade.
    1. Re:Open. Source. Fucking. Sucks. by TheRaven64 · · Score: -1, Flamebait
      Nah. Open source would work if we had Open-Food and Open-Beer as well. I'm happy to code for free, as long as everything I want to buy is free as well.

      Still, I like the sound of Open Stalin. Can we kill people who decide to reinvent the wheel, to encourage OS developers to pull in the same direction? Stop the holy wars for once and for all.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  3. Poor quality is number one Apple problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait
    Buried amidst all the war news is a very telling new report on quality problems which plague Apple computers. Hapless consumers are in open revolt against Apple's shoddy hardware and buggy software. And it couldn't come at a worse time for Apple. You see, Apple is on very shaky ground financially. Frankly, many prominent industry analysts have crunched the numbers, concluding that Apple's outlook is bleak indeed.

    In Apple's latest numbers released in January for its fiscal first quarter of 2003, revenue fell from a year earlier and all of the company's major computer lines saw diminished numbers. PowerMac sales were down 20%, while iBook sales fell 8%.

    At the same time Apple's sales were falling, PC sales rose, though just slightly, according to figures from IDC released last month.

    The last time Apple was in this state, it brought back co-founder Steve Jobs to fix its issues. He fostered the development of the iMac and secured a US$150-million investment from Microsoft. But there aren't any new iMacs in Apple's future and Microsoft, bolstered by its victory over the U.S. Department of Justice, is clearly not going to help the beleaguered computer maker this time.

    So what have you got left? Apple is a company that controls around 3% of the computer market, has recently undergone a restructuring and is slowly fading into nothingness. Software makers don't even have Mac users on their radar and it's not like Apple can bring Mr. Jobs back to right the ship this time -- he's already there.

    Stick a fork in 'em -- this Apple is cooked.