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Xref: sserve comp.unix.aix:48542 comp.unix.bsd:15496 comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit:7659 comp.unix.solaris:27957 comp.unix.unixware:14915 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msunews!uwm.edu!caen!usenet.coe.montana.edu!bsd.coe.montana.edu!nate From: nate@bsd.coe.montana.edu (Nate Williams) Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix,comp.unix.bsd,comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit,comp.unix.solaris,comp.unix.unixware Subject: Re: Unix for PC Date: 9 Dec 1994 01:10:42 GMT Organization: Montana State University, Bozeman Montana Lines: 49 Distribution: inet Message-ID: <3c8aqi$l4i@pdq.coe.montana.edu> References: <199411210319.TAA18133@nic.cerf.net> <D0I7Fq.C1p@news.cern.ch> <3c7qli$glm@pdq.coe.montana.edu> <3c81c7$h1o@fido.asd.sgi.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: bsd.coe.montana.edu In article <3c81c7$h1o@fido.asd.sgi.com>, Larry McVoy <lm@slovax.engr.sgi.com> wrote: >Nate Williams (nate@bsd.coe.montana.edu) wrote: >: C'mon Dan. Commercial OS software testing is completely different than >: free software testing in general. The reason Linux and FreeBSD have >: more features than the commercial x86 versions sooner is because >: stability is not as important as 'feeping creaturism'. Features comes >: first, and stability comes second. And, it's a lot more fun to do >: things that way. :-) > >I hate to burst your bubble, but I worked at Sun in the systems group for >a few years (and then in the server group). They had *no* regression >test other than the binaries that shipped with the OS. Since 5.x, >they use the POSIX test suites but those (were) are pathetic and >certainly don't cover everything. Then somebody should take the manager of that group out and shoot him. Either that or his manager for giving unreasonable deadlines that can't be met with decent testing. If microsoft does one thing right it's test it's software. Granted, it still never seems to find the bugs that the average user find the first time around, but they do indeed spend alot of their resources trying to break their own products. >The commercial OS release mechanism is pretty similar to Linux. You send >out some alpha junk to a few sites and see what the reaction is. The closer >you get to beta the less you allow in. After beta only show stoppers get >in. That might be the way SUN does things, but I know of a couple other OS vendors that don't do things that way. :) >Stability is important but there is little in the way of testing done to >insure stability. SMCC might be fixing that, I understand they have/had >Solaris 2.4 months before they shipped it. :-) Stability can be tested by putting real world applications on your hardware. The way FreeBSD tests it's software is by sticking it on wcarchive.cdrom.com. Having 250-350 ftp's is one way of seeing how the system reacts under load. :) Nate -- nate@bsd.coe.montana.edu | FreeBSD dude and all around tech. nate@cs.montana.edu | weenie. work #: (406) 994-5980 | Unemployed, looking for permanant work in home #: (406) 586-0579 | CS/EE field.