Interesting Walt Mossberg article on Ubuntu Linux

[Green, Paul]

Walt Mossberg, staff technology writer for the Wall Street Journal, has
written a column in which he reviews Ubuntu Linux running on a Dell
laptop as a competitor for Mac OS and Windows.  I think every engineer
who creates technology, especially every engineer who works in open
source, should read it.  It is short and pithy, as are most of his
columns.

Mossberg's basic thesis is that Ubuntu Linux has too many bugs in common
functions to make it usable by average computer users and that the
reason for this may be that there no one single organization responsible
for managing the total user experience.

He provides concrete examples as evidence for the bugs.  I find it hard
to quibble with his conclusion.

As far as the reason there are so many bugs, I'd counter that even
having a single entity that is responsible for a product is not
sufficient; you need consistent application of an effective process for
preventing and removing bugs.  I see no inherent reason why the OSS
community cannot define an effective process that would address his
issues.  I don't think it is simply a technical problem; I believe it is
equally a political problem.  With the processes and tools that most
development teams use today, bug-free operation ("stability") and
enhancements ("change") are enemies.

Relating this back to Samba, I think that the build farm, the torture
test suite, and code coverage measurements are excellent examples of how
the development process can accommodate both change and stability.  On
the staff side, having a small team of highly experience, highly
productive software engineers who trust each other and work well
together is absolutely critical to the success of Samba over the years.

"Linux's Free System Is Now Easier to Use, But Not for Everyone," by
Walter S. Mossberg.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118963540721725614.html?mod=djempersonal

The online WSJ is a subscription service, but I believe that this
article is available to anyone, at least for a while. You can also
access his columns for free at http://walt.allthingsd.com.  No, I don't
know him and he didn't ask me to say this; I'm just a fan of his
writing.

Thanks
PG
--
Paul Green, Senior Technical Consultant, Stratus Technologies.
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