Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!tness7!killer!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mcgill-vision!mouse From: mouse@mcgill-vision.UUCP (der Mouse) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: Trusting operating systems: vendor or university? Message-ID: <1133@mcgill-vision.UUCP> Date: 4 Jun 88 09:36:03 GMT References: <1128@mcgill-vision.UUCP> <55239@sun.uucp> Organization: McGill University, Montreal Lines: 42 Posted: Sat Jun 4 05:36:03 1988 In article <55239@sun.uucp>, limes@sun.uucp (Greg Limes) writes: > In article <1128@mcgill-vision.UUCP> der Mouse writes: >>... I trust one written by a company out to make money even less. > Funny, I would expect exactly the reverse. If the operating system > does not work properly, the company gets bug reports and has to fix > them They do? In my experience they generally ignore the bug reports. (My experience is limited to DEC and Sun, so this may not be a representative sample.) And my notion of fixing a bug involves getting a fix to the person with the problem within a week. Not "in the next major release - and oh yes, that will cost you $2500[1]". (Of course, I prefer getting source, so I can fix it myself that evening, instead of getting a black-box fix five days later. Source is another oven of flames I will refrain from opening just now.) Specifics of ignored reports? With DEC, I reported a bug in patch (VMS patch, even, not an Ultrix thing) via SPR. I never heard back, clear up to the time when we finally dumped VMS for good. (I also reported another bug, but that was my mistake, not a bug at all. They did get back to me on that one.) With Sun, I sent in one bug report and never heard a peep, though the bug went away with the next major version (or rather, was replaced by a different bug). I also sent in a dissection of some code printed in some Sun periodical publication (the STB maybe?) and was told, in effect, "we didn't say that code was worth diddly-squat; get lost"[2]. Those are the ones I recall; there may have been others. > Thus is it in the best interests of the for-profit corporation to > provide software that is as reliable and bug-free as possible. I agree. If only they would realize it. (Or perhaps I should say, if only they would pay attention to bugs that are bothering only a small proportion of their clientele.) der Mouse uucp: mouse@mcgill-vision.uucp arpa: mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu [1] Figure picked out of thin air. I suspect it's low. [2] Not in so many words. Details via email on request.