> How much does a typo in a commercial unix vendor's OS cost you?
A genuine bug in IRIX 5.3 cost me about 3 days' worth of work 2
weeks ago.
Don't look at me, I think IRIX is a big fat, sucky, bloated pig too.
Thats why I am here making Linux work on SGI's hardware.
Linux kernel typos generally cost me about
20 minutes to find a fix then the time it takes to do a partial
kernel compile. I admit, its a lot less, but its still a cost.
20 minutes compared to days or even weeks. Thankfully, free software
lets you try our way of doing things very cheaply. Also, free
software allows you to actually do something yourself about a
development methodology you have deemed as broken, you can go in and
dork with the controls if you get the incentive. A unix vendor could
give a rats ass about what you think of the way they do development
and respond to your problems, unless you are a $4 million customer, in
which case you can ask them to add performance problems like bogus
System V streams to their OS and they go "yes master".
There is something to be said about free support from the developers
themselves on the net (good luck talking directly to a kernel engineer
at a major unix vendor when you report a bug to them, that is unless
you are one of those $4 million customers who keeps their lights on).
Them doing it out of the kindness of their hearts and not because it
means the roof over their heads, and then watching somebody
complaining about it.
dm@engr.sgi.com
'Ooohh.. "FreeBSD is faster over loopback, when compared to
Linux over the wire". Film at 11.' -Linus