Closed source versus open source in a model of software bug dynamics
<|reference_start|>Closed source versus open source in a model of software bug dynamics: We introduce a simple microscopic description of software bug dynamics where users, programmers and a maintainer interact through a given program, with a particular emphasis on bug creation, detection and fixing. When the program is written from scratch, the first phase of development is characterized by a fast decline of the number of bugs, followed by a slow phase where most bugs have been fixed, hence, are hard to find. Releasing immediately bug fixes speeds up the debugging process, which substantiates bazaar open-source methodology. We provide a mathematical analysis that supports our numerical simulations. Finally, we apply our model to Linux history and determine the existence of a lower bound to the quality of its programmers.<|reference_end|>
@article{challet2003closed,
    title={Closed source versus open source in a model of software bug dynamics},
    author={Damien Challet and Yann Le Du},
    journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0306511},
    year={2003},
    archivePrefix={arXiv},
    eprint={cond-mat/0306511},
    primaryClass={cond-mat.stat-mech cs.SE}
}