Linux developers squish bugs faster
Published: 23 Nov 2005 16:15 GMT
Open source developers can use developer communities to track down bugs and fix them in a surprisingly short time — less than four business hours, in many cases, according to the latest survey from Evans Data.
The findings come from an October survey of more than 450 developers currently working on open source projects. Evans looked at the amount of time between the discovery of a serious bug in a program and finding a solution for the bug. Researchers found that 17 percent said that on average it takes them less than four business hours to find a fix. Another quarter said it took them four to eight business hours, Evans said.
"Some of the main strengths of open source software development are the communities that have grown into knowledge repositories for development. Using these communities an open source developer can find and fix severe bugs much more rapidly," said Evans president John Andrews, in a statement.
Substantial numbers of developers also said it takes them longer to fix bugs — 28 percent said it too eight to 24 business hours, and 30 percent said it took them more than 24 business hours.
The role of the community around an open source program is key in producing and distributing fixes, but it's important to know a bit about that community, Evans said. "An understanding of how the community works can also be of assistance as the developer narrows down where to look first and who to talk to," the report said.
Among the report's other findings were that virus infections on Linux developers' systems are going down. Ninety-four percent said their systems have never been infected with a virus, up slightly from the last survey six months ago. Of those that have been infected, 2 percent have been hit three or more times.
The survey found a willingness among open source developers to pay for support and for high quality tools, regardless of whether the tools were open source or not. The majority, 64 percent, said they would pay for a Linux tool that worked well, even if it wasn't open source. Only six percent said they would "absolutely not" buy a tool that wasn't open source.
Respondents said similar things about support — 20 percent said they'd pay $200-$500 a year for open source software support, with 15 percent saying they'd pay $500-$1,000 a year. A quarter said they wouldn't be willing to pay anything for support.
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