[OSGeo-Discuss] Bug report response time

[Alex Mandel]

On 11/11/2010 02:12 PM, Mateusz Loskot wrote:
> On 11/11/10 09:43, Sjur Kolberg wrote:
>> I am trying to convince people that open source GIS is a better
>> solution than buying proprietary software. Such discussions follow a
>> well-known path (is it mature/stable? How about support? All our
>> clients use XXXX..., Nice for programmers, but...) etc. Conclusions
>> precede arguments, and some hard numbers could be of great help in
>> all the religion.
> 
> Hypothesis 0: There is no relation between an open source development of
> a project and fast pace of fixing bugs
> 
> Hypothesis 1: There is relation between an open source development of a
> project and fast pace of fixing bugs
> 
> Accept the hypothesis 0:
> 
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8499859.stm
> 
> Reject the hypothesis 0:
> 
> http://www.osnews.com/story/19731/The-25-Year-Old-UNIX-Bug
> 
> Accept the hypothesis 1:
> 
> http://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/ticket/3810
> 
> Reject the hypothesis 1:
> 
> http://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/ticket/249
> 
> What is the conclusion?
> 
> Statistics is evil. As long as the methodology is right,
> you can proof any bullshit you like, or shoot yourself in your the foot.
> So, I'd be careful.
> 
> 
> Best regards,

Agreed, it might be more important to highlight that the bug database is
publicly available. I know with many closed source apps it's hard to
know if they've even acknowledged a bug and aren't really forthcoming
about if they plan to fix it. I have actually been told, yes that's a
bug and no we don't plan to fix it.

Thanks,
Alex