Linux Leads in Open Source Quality, but Risky Defects Lurk
Government Computer News (05/11/13) Paul McCloskey
Linux topped open source software in quality in a study of the defects that occur in the software
development process. For more than seven years, Coverity Scan Service analyzed 850 million lines
of code from more than 300 open source projects, including those written in Linux, PHP, and Apache.
Using a measure of defects per 1,000 lines of code, the study found that Linux consistently
recorded defect densities of less than 1.0, with versions scanned between 2011 and 2012 having
defect rates below 0.7. The study also found that high-risk defects were prevalent in the software
development process, with 36 percent of defects classified as a "threat to overall software
quality and security if undetected." The most common high-risk defects included memory
corruption, illegal memory access, and resource leaks, which the study's report says are "all
difficult to detect without automated code analysis." The study also found that the average
quality of open source software was virtually equal to that of proprietary software.
http://gcn.com/blogs/pulse/2013/05/linux-leads-in-open-source-quality-but-risky-defects-lurk.aspx
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