This press release endeavors to answer a question that has been asked by many. Is open source code as good or better than proprietary code? The research took place in 2011, to test the quality of open source software. The most active open source projects were analysed together with proprietary software code.
It is interesting to see that over 37 million lines of open source code were analysed compared to 300 million lines of code from proprietary software. It seems disproportionate to test 37 million against 300 million.
The results came back with a defect density of 0.45 for open source and 0.64 for proprietary, coming to the conclusion that open source code quality is on par with proprietary code quality, particularly in cases where code bases were of similar size. Specifically Linux 2.6, a project with nearly 7 million lines of code, with a defect density of 0.62, which is similar to that of its proprietary code base counterparts.
It would be interesting to explore the testing model and reliability of these results. However, going with the press release's proposal it would be right to say that "Open Content Systems" which have a de-centralised knowledge base and social approach achieve quality through "the Wisdom of Crowds". Open source contributors are usually characterised by their independence, a good sense of cooperation, and common sense, it would be right to say that the type of people who are attracted to make a contribution strive for quality and high achievement. It is interesting to observe that those who generally contribute to open systems have a similar attitude, attributing to the quality produced by Open Content Systems.
This press release endeavors to answer a question that has been asked by many. Is open source code as good or better than proprietary code? The research took place in 2011, to test the quality of open source software. The most active open source projects were analysed together with proprietary software code.
It is interesting to see that over 37 million lines of open source code were analysed compared to 300 million lines of code from proprietary software. It seems disproportionate to test 37 million against 300 million.
The results came back with a defect density of 0.45 for open source and 0.64 for proprietary, coming to the conclusion that open source code quality is on par with proprietary code quality, particularly in cases where code bases were of similar size. Specifically Linux 2.6, a project with nearly 7 million lines of code, with a defect density of 0.62, which is similar to that of its proprietary code base counterparts.
It would be interesting to explore the testing model and reliability of these results. However, going with the press release's proposal it would be right to say that "Open Content Systems" which have a de-centralised knowledge base and social approach achieve quality through "the Wisdom of Crowds". Open source contributors are usually characterised by their independence, a good sense of cooperation, and common sense, it would be right to say that the type of people who are attracted to make a contribution strive for quality and high achievement. It is interesting to observe that those who generally contribute to open systems have a similar attitude, attributing to the quality produced by Open Content Systems.
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