[dba-Tech] Now why is not Windows written to this standard?

Mark Breen marklbreen at gmail.com
Sat May 22 07:29:04 CDT 2010


While I found it disheartening when it was said to me six years ago, I
suppose I have to accept it as one answer to this question

I asked someone why most software was poor, and he answered
"good enough is good enough"

Does that answer the question about Windows Vs the Shuttle software?

I have to say again, I find it upsetting but it may be true.

Mark




On 22 May 2010 03:02, rockysmolin at bchacc.com <rockysmolin at bchacc.com> wrote:

> "If the cost of
> developing Windows tripled the cost to the consumer would be marginal
> almost
> to the point of imperceptible. "
>
> But not to MS.  Plus the extra time it would take to perfect windowes
> represents a signifncant opportunity cost.
>
>
> "support of MS products and fixing Windows errors is a major business
> and just another revenue stream "
>
> Which means no incentive to perfect.  Why spend big bucks to perfect
> Windows with he loss of time and revenue, and then give up the support
> costs.
>
> Finally, comparing a narrow well-defined application like the shuttle
> systems, it may not be fair to compare it to a general purpose system like
> Windows.  How many third party downloads are they doing up there which
> might smoke out incompatibilities with their system.
>
> Rocky
>
>
> Original Message:
> -----------------
> From: Jim Lawrence accessd at shaw.ca
> Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 09:21:40 -0700
> To: dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com
> Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Now why is not Windows written to this standard?
> " cost to the consumer would be marginal almost
> to the point of imperceptible."  Not to MS.  Plus there's the TIME it would
> take to perfect - there's a big opportunity
>
> I agree with much of what you say but there be more to it than that.
>
> First, unlike the shuttle craft software that runs on but a few systems,
> just Windows7 alone runs on 90,000,000 million computers... If the cost of
> developing Windows tripled the cost to the consumer would be marginal
> almost
> to the point of imperceptible.
>
> Second, support of MS products and fixing Windows errors is a major
> business
> and just another revenue stream and as long as the public will tolerate it,
> why change things.
>
> Third, being a buggy desktop, Windows (80 plus percent estimated on the
> desktop) may be tolerable, where a simple reboot can solve most problems
> but
> when it comes to servers MS has been doing itself no flavours. There is a
> reason why Microsoft has been unable to make major in roads with servers.
> (In 30 years it owns less than 7 percent, of that market, according to a
> 2009 survey). The reliability or perceived reliability just is not there.
> Servers, like the space shuttle, are mission critical.
>
> The question of course is; can a reliable desktop type product be made?
> OpenBSD a flavour of Linux/Unix brags that they have had fewer than a dozen
> real bugs in about 15-20 years... BSD is now used as the core to the new
> Macs. Ubuntu/Debian Linux product states it has less than 10 percent the
> amount of bugs that MS does and fixes them in a quarter of the time. All of
> this is of course part fact and part fiction as Microsoft counters with it
> own nearly unbelievable statistics.
>
> Jim
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
> [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of
> rockysmolin at bchacc.com
> Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 8:14 AM
> To: dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com
> Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Now why is not Windows written to this standard?
>
> Well there's an obvious answer to your question - I think.  The cost of an
> error in the space shuttle is death.  The testing has to be perfect.  The
> cost of errors in Windows is lost hair, mostly.  It's not a mission
> critical application (for users who do their disk images and/or backups
> regularly).
>
> The 80/20 rule says you're going to spend a huge amount of money uncovering
> those last few bugs.  Microsoft COULD make Windows error free but it wold
> probably cost $3,000 a copy in stead of $300.  You've worked with
> government contracts enough to know the routine.
>
> ROcky
>
>
> Original Message:
> -----------------
> From: Jim Lawrence accessd at shaw.ca
> Date: Thu, 20 May 2010 19:07:21 -0700
> To: dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com
> Subject: [dba-Tech] Now why is not Windows written to this standard?
>
>
> I received this link and it made me ask the question...Why can not Windows
> be written with the same confidence? Does Windows and virtually all other
> software for that matter have to have thousands of errors? Is it because
> thousands of jobs depend on those errors?
>
> if MS could even come close to matching a near perfect Desktop, would they
> have any concerns from competition? Is there not checking software that if
> given time and the right testing scenarios can virtually uncover any bug?
> But what do I know?
>
> http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/06/writestuff.html?page=0,0
>
> Jim
>
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