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[GNU-traductores] old-gnudist:/home/www/html/software/reliability.html -- New file |
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7 -rw-rw-r-- 1 webcvs www 6747 Nov 13 12:59
/home/www/html/software/reliability.html
Contents:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Free Software is More Reliable! - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation
(FSF)</TITLE>
<LINK REV="made" HREF="mailto:address@hidden";>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#1F00FF" ALINK="#FF0000"
VLINK="#9900DD">
<H3>Free Software is More Reliable!</H3>
<A HREF="/graphics/agnuhead.html"><IMG SRC="/graphics/gnu-head-sm.jpg"
ALT=" [image of the Head of a GNU] "
WIDTH="129" HEIGHT="122"></A>
[
<A HREF="/software/reliability.ca.html">Catalan</A>
| <A HREF="/software/reliability.html">English</A>
| <A HREF="/software/reliability.fr.html">French</A>
| <A HREF="/software/reliability.id.html">Indonesian</A>
| <A HREF="/software/reliability.ja.html">Japanese</A>
| <A HREF="/software/reliability.pt.html">Portuguese</A>
| <A HREF="/software/reliability.es.html">Spanish</A>
]
<P>
Apologists for
<A HREF="/philosophy/categories.html#ProprietarySoftware">proprietary
software</A>
like to say, ``<A HREF="/philosophy/free-sw.html">free software</A> is a
nice dream, but we all know that only the proprietary system can
produce reliable products. A bunch of hackers just can't do this.''
<P>
Empirical evidence disagrees, however; scientific tests, described
below, have found GNU software to be <em>more</em> reliable than
comparable proprietary software.
<P>
This should not be a surprise; there are good reasons for the high
reliability of GNU software, good reasons to expect free software
will often (though not always) have high reliability.
<HR>
<P>
<H4>Table of Contents</H4>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="reliability.html#GNUUtilitiesSafer"
NAME="TOCGNUUtilitiesSafer">GNU Utilities Safer!</A>
<LI><A HREF="reliability.html#WhyReliable"
NAME="TOCWhyReliable">Why Free Software is More Reliable</A>
<LI><A HREF="reliability.html#CancerClinicReliesOnFreeSoftware"
NAME="TOCCancerClinicReliesOnFreeSoftware">Cancer
Clinic Relies on Free Software!</A>
<LI><A HREF="reliability.html#Bulletproof"
NAME="TOCBulletproof">Help Bulletproof GNU Utilities!</A>
</UL>
<P>
<HR>
<P>
<H4><A HREF="reliability.html#TOCGNUUtilitiesSafer"
NAME="GNUUtilitiesSafer">GNU Utilities Safer!</A></H4>
Barton P. Miller and his colleagues tested the reliability of Unix
utility programs in 1990 and 1995. Each time, GNU's utilities came
out considerably ahead. They tested seven commercial Unix systems as
well as GNU. By subjecting them to a random input stream, they could
``crash (with core dump) or hang (infinite loop) over 40% (in the
worst case) of the basic utility programs ...''
<P>
These researchers found that the commercial Unix systems had a failure
rate that ranged from 15% to 43%. In contrast, the failure rate for
GNU was only 7%.
<P>
Miller also said that, ``the three commercial systems that we compared
in both 1990 and 1995 noticeably improved in reliability, but still
had significant rates of failure (the basic utilities from GNU/Linux
still were noticeably better than those of the commercial systems).''
<P>
For details, see their paper:
<A HREF="ftp://grilled.cs.wisc.edu/technical_papers/fuzz-revisited.ps";>Fuzz
Revisited: A Re-examination of the Reliability of Unix Utilities and
Services (postscript 146k)</A> by Barton P. Miller
<A HREF="mailto:address@hidden";><address@hidden></A>, David
Koski, Cjin Pheow Lee, Vivekananda Maganty, Ravi Murthy, Ajitkumar
Natarajan, and Jeff Steidl.
<P>
<H4><A HREF="reliability.html#TOCWhyReliable"
NAME="WhyReliable">Why Free Software is More Reliable</A></H4>
It is no fluke that the GNU utilities are so reliable. There are good
reasons why free software tends to be of high quality.
<P>
One reason is that free software gets the whole community involved in
working together to fix problems. Users not only report bugs, they
even fix bugs and send in fixes. Users work together, conversing by
email, to get to the bottom of a problem and make the software
work trouble-free.
<P>
Another is that developers really care about reliability. Free
software packages do not always compete commercially, but they still
compete for a good reputation, and a program which is unsatisfactory
will not achieve the popularity that developers hope for. What's
more, an author who makes the source code available for all to see
puts his reputation on the line, and had better make the software
clean and clear, on pain of the community's disapproval.
<P>
<H4><A HREF="reliability.html#TOCCancerClinicReliesOnFreeSoftware"
NAME="CancerClinicReliesOnFreeSoftware">Cancer
Clinic Relies on Free Software!</A></H4>
The Roger Maris Cancer Center in Fargo, North Dakota (the same Fargo
which was recently the scene of a movie and a flood) uses Linux-based
GNU systems precisely because reliability is essential. A network of
GNU/Linux machines runs the information system, coordinates drug
therapies, and performs many other functions. This network needs to
be available to the Center's staff at a moment's notice.
<P>
According to Dr. G.W. Wettstein
<A HREF="mailto:address@hidden";><address@hidden></A>:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
``the proper care of our cancer patients would not be what it is today
without Linux ... The tools that we have been able to deploy from free
software channels have enabled us to write and develop innovative
applications which ... do not exist through commercial avenues.''
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
<H4><A HREF="reliability.html#TOCBulletproof"
NAME="Bulletproof">Bulletproof GNU Utilities!</A></H4>
<A HREF="mailto:address@hidden";>Scott Maxwell</A> is leading an effort
to eliminate "fuzz bugs" from GNU software, thus making them even more
reliable. You can read about the project on <A
HREF="http://home.pacbell.net/s-max/scott/bulletproof-penguin.html";>http://home.pacbell.net/s-max/scott/bulletproof-penguin.html</A>.
<P>
<HR>
Return to <A HREF="/home.html">GNU's home page</A>.
<P>
Please send FSF & GNU inquiries & questions to
<A HREF="mailto:address@hidden";><EM>address@hidden</EM></A>.
There are also <A HREF="/home.html#ContactInfo">other ways to
contact</A> the FSF.
<P>
Please send comments on these web pages to
<A HREF="mailto:address@hidden";><EM>address@hidden</EM></A>,
send other questions to
<A HREF="mailto:address@hidden";><EM>address@hidden</EM></A>.
<P>
Copyright (C) 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111, USA
<P>
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is
permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.<P>
Updated:
<!-- timestamp start -->
$Date: 2001/11/13 20:59:36 $ $Author: fsl $
<!-- timestamp end -->
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