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Debugging in OSS Always Faster
dex@ruunat writes "Damien Challet and Yann Le Du of the University of Oxford studied a model of software bug dynamics, which resulted in a paper on cond-mat this morning. In this paper they study the difference in evolution of number of bugs in open and closed source projects. They conclude: 'When the program is written from scratch, the first phase of development is characterized by a fast decline of the number of bugs, followed by a slow phase where most bugs have been fixed, hence, are hard to find'. Another, perhaps surprising conclusion is that debugging in open source projects is always faster than in closed source projects."
We introduce a model of software bug dynamics where users, programmers and maintainers interact through a given program. When the program is written from scratch, the first phase of development is characterized by a fast decline of the number of bugs, followed by a slow phase where most bugs have been fixed, hence, are hard to find. For a given set of parameters, debugging in open source projects is always faster than in closed source projects. Finally, we determine qualitative lowers bounds to quality of Linux programmers.
I have introduced a model of sociological models. For almost all parameters, the sociological model turns out to be complete and utter bullshit.
"And this is my boy, Sherman. Speak, Sherman." "Hello." "Good boy."
Well 70% of all stats are made up on the spot. 40% of the people know that.
No HTML = no read.
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People who use OSS extensively also tend to have bigger penises.
As with all statistics, you can make them say whatever you want...
Can you make them say "I'm lost, can you help me" in German? I'm going to Germany soon and if I can get some english-german speaking statistics, it would really help.