[TriLUG] Fwd: Sign this Petition - Explain why taxpayers pay out billions to Microsoft and get nothing in return, while Linux is free!

[Randy Barlow]

On Sat, 2013-04-27 at 18:55 -0400, Brandon Van Every wrote:
> New
> bugs are created because a lot of the open source world doesn't
> believe in
> stability or end user experience.

There have actually been some studies that have revealed the opposite.
Open source software on average has ~100 times fewer bugs per line of
code than closed source software does:

https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=open+source+vs+closed
+source+bugs+per+line+of
+code&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&channel=suggest

It's pretty fascinating and awesome. Closed source software doesn't
attract nearly as many developers (due to pesky payroll), and doesn't
get as much scrutiny over the code (due to only a limited number of
developers having access to it). Open Source projects (especially high
profile ones like the Linux kernel) have many times the number of
contributors and reviewers.

Open Source software projects are also often much more responsive to
fixing bugs (especially high profile security related bugs) than most
closed source projects.

These inherent "features" of Open Source software lead to much higher
quality computing environments, together with the added benefit of
providing much more choice and freedom to the user.

-- 
Randy Barlow
Open Source Fanboy