Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sun, 28 Jul 1996 23:03:47 -0700 | From | "David S. Miller" <> | Subject | Re: This is really Ridiculous |
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Date: Mon, 29 Jul 1996 01:30:21 -0400 (EDT) From: Brian Grunkemeyer <bg2k@cmu.edu>
> How much does a typo in a commercial unix vendor's OS cost you?
A genuine bug in IRIX 5.3 cost me about 3 days' worth of work 2 weeks ago.
Don't look at me, I think IRIX is a big fat, sucky, bloated pig too. Thats why I am here making Linux work on SGI's hardware.
Linux kernel typos generally cost me about 20 minutes to find a fix then the time it takes to do a partial kernel compile. I admit, its a lot less, but its still a cost.
20 minutes compared to days or even weeks. Thankfully, free software lets you try our way of doing things very cheaply. Also, free software allows you to actually do something yourself about a development methodology you have deemed as broken, you can go in and dork with the controls if you get the incentive. A unix vendor could give a rats ass about what you think of the way they do development and respond to your problems, unless you are a $4 million customer, in which case you can ask them to add performance problems like bogus System V streams to their OS and they go "yes master".
There is something to be said about free support from the developers themselves on the net (good luck talking directly to a kernel engineer at a major unix vendor when you report a bug to them, that is unless you are one of those $4 million customers who keeps their lights on). Them doing it out of the kindness of their hearts and not because it means the roof over their heads, and then watching somebody complaining about it.
dm@engr.sgi.com
'Ooohh.. "FreeBSD is faster over loopback, when compared to Linux over the wire". Film at 11.' -Linus
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