Introduction to Free Software - SELF | Sharing Knowledge about ...
Introduction to Free Software - SELF | Sharing Knowledge about ...
Introduction to Free Software - SELF | Sharing Knowledge about ...
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© FUOC • P07/M2101/02709 173 <strong>Free</strong> <strong>Software</strong><br />
9.9.2. Comparison with other operating systems<br />
There is the proverb that says that all comparisons are odious; this is especially<br />
true when comparing free software with proprietary software. The detailed x-<br />
rays taken of Red Hat Linux and Debian were possible because they are exam-<br />
ples of free software. Having access <strong>to</strong> the code (and <strong>to</strong> the other information<br />
that has been provided in this chapter) is essential for studying the different<br />
versions' number of lines, packages, programming languages, etc. But the ad-<br />
vantages of free software go beyond this, because, in addition, they make it<br />
easier for third parties, whether they are research teams or simply people that<br />
are interested, <strong>to</strong> analyse them.<br />
In proprietary systems in general, a study such as this would be completely<br />
impossible. In fact, the figures provided below were obtained from the com-<br />
panies behind proprietary software development themselves, which means<br />
that we are not in a position <strong>to</strong> guarantee their truthfulness. To <strong>to</strong>p this off,<br />
in many cases we do not know whether they are talking <strong>about</strong> physical source<br />
code lines, as we have done during this chapter, or whether they also include<br />
the blank lines and comments. Furthermore, neither do we know for certain<br />
what they include in their software, which means that we do not know whet-<br />
her certain versions of Microsoft Windows include the Microsoft Office suite<br />
or not.<br />
In any case, considering all that we have discussed on this matter in previous<br />
paragraphs, we believe that it is interesting <strong>to</strong> include this comparison, as<br />
it helps us <strong>to</strong> see the position in which the different Red Hat and Debian<br />
distributions are in, within a wider context. What is unquestionable is that<br />
both Debian and Red Hat, but especially the former, are the largest collections<br />
of software ever seen by humanity <strong>to</strong> date.<br />
The figures cited below come from Mark Lucovsky [168] for Windows 2000,<br />
SUN Microsystems [171] for StarOffice 5.2, Gary McGraw [169] for Windows<br />
XP and Bruce Schneier [200] for all the other systems. Table 23 provides a<br />
comparison, from smallest <strong>to</strong> greatest.<br />
Table 23. Comparison with proprietary systems<br />
System Date of publication Lines of code (approx.)<br />
Microsoft Windows 3.1 April 1992 3,000,000<br />
SUN Solaris 7 Oc<strong>to</strong>ber 1998 7,500,000<br />
SUN StarOffice 5.2 June 2000 7,600,000<br />
Microsoft Windows 95 August 1995 15,000,000<br />
Red Hat Linux 6.2 March 2000 18,000,000<br />
Debian 2.0 July 1998 25,000,000