Open Source Bugs, Firefox Alerts !!!!
It's been a while, but I'd like to think that I only write when there is really something to write about or bothering me.
I've seen many articles warning us to be carefull about using Firefox or open source software. Most of them are bull...t.
First, let just say that there are bugs in ALL software pieces, security wholes or just plain bugs. What makes the big difference between open source and payware closed source is the time it takes to correct them.
When you live on money generated by your piece of software, the less you do the more money you make. You'd rather work on new versions and integrate corrections at the same time, then only correct problems. You also only direct a small amount of your ressources to *just* correcting problems since that doesn't generate any money.
On the other hand, on the open source side your reputation is made on the quality of the software. Most people developing open source don't count the time they put in and don't necessarily get paid to develop these. They do it more as a hobby and because they think that their pieces of software are better than the competion that you have to pay for. On the count of Firefox, it has been downloaded more than 44 million times and counting, which means that there are a lot of people that agree with the developers. Now that you have momentum and a lot of people counting on you, you will go out of your way to solve problems the fastest as possible, while developing the next version.
In short, in payware when there is a small bug, it gets put in the list and sometime you'll have to wait a long time to get a fix for it. In the open source freeware, since your reputation is made on the quality of your software, you'll try to solve it as soon as possible.
Today, there are still some security bugs that have not been solved in IE and M$ knows it, some on the security bugs take 6 months to solve !!!! WORSE, some have not yet been solved (and I'm pretty sure some have not yet been attended to !!!) In Firefox, the security bugs that have been found have been solved or are being solved (the latest one being with javascript) and it didn't take 6 months for people to decide to put some ressources on the problems.
There will always be bugs in software, these programs have probably more lines of code than a big book, so they can't be perfect.
In closing, next time you hear that there is a bug, or even a security bug in Firefox, just take the time to search on the net the number of security bugs NOT YET SOLVED in M$ IE, and relax ...
I've seen many articles warning us to be carefull about using Firefox or open source software. Most of them are bull...t.
First, let just say that there are bugs in ALL software pieces, security wholes or just plain bugs. What makes the big difference between open source and payware closed source is the time it takes to correct them.
When you live on money generated by your piece of software, the less you do the more money you make. You'd rather work on new versions and integrate corrections at the same time, then only correct problems. You also only direct a small amount of your ressources to *just* correcting problems since that doesn't generate any money.
On the other hand, on the open source side your reputation is made on the quality of the software. Most people developing open source don't count the time they put in and don't necessarily get paid to develop these. They do it more as a hobby and because they think that their pieces of software are better than the competion that you have to pay for. On the count of Firefox, it has been downloaded more than 44 million times and counting, which means that there are a lot of people that agree with the developers. Now that you have momentum and a lot of people counting on you, you will go out of your way to solve problems the fastest as possible, while developing the next version.
In short, in payware when there is a small bug, it gets put in the list and sometime you'll have to wait a long time to get a fix for it. In the open source freeware, since your reputation is made on the quality of your software, you'll try to solve it as soon as possible.
Today, there are still some security bugs that have not been solved in IE and M$ knows it, some on the security bugs take 6 months to solve !!!! WORSE, some have not yet been solved (and I'm pretty sure some have not yet been attended to !!!) In Firefox, the security bugs that have been found have been solved or are being solved (the latest one being with javascript) and it didn't take 6 months for people to decide to put some ressources on the problems.
There will always be bugs in software, these programs have probably more lines of code than a big book, so they can't be perfect.
In closing, next time you hear that there is a bug, or even a security bug in Firefox, just take the time to search on the net the number of security bugs NOT YET SOLVED in M$ IE, and relax ...
posted by R. at 00:20
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