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Two case studies of open source software development: Apache and Mozilla

Authors:

Audris Mockus,

Roy T. Fielding,

James D. HerbslebAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), Volume 11, Issue 3

Pages 309 - 346

https://doi.org/10.1145/567793.567795

Published: 01 July 2002 Publication History

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Abstract

According to its proponents, open source style software development has the capacity to compete successfully, and perhaps in many cases displace, traditional commercial development methods. In order to begin investigating such claims, we examine data from two major open source projects, the Apache web server and the Mozilla browser. By using email archives of source code change history and problem reports we quantify aspects of developer participation, core team size, code ownership, productivity, defect density, and problem resolution intervals for these OSS projects. We develop several hypotheses by comparing the Apache project with several commercial projects. We then test and refine several of these hypotheses, based on an analysis of Mozilla data. We conclude with thoughts about the prospects for high-performance commercial/open source process hybrids.

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Aditya Raj Chauhan Atul Ashima Mehta (2024)The Vitality of Open Source SoftwareInternational Journal of Advanced Research in Science, Communication and Technology10.48175/IJARSCT-17611(61-66)Online publication date: 24-Apr-2024
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Li YZhang HJin YRen ZDong LLyu JYang LLo DShao DFilkov VRay BZhou M(2024)An Explainable Automated Model for Measuring Software Engineer ContributionProceedings of the 39th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering10.1145/3691620.3695071(783-794)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
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Index Terms

Two case studies of open source software development: Apache and Mozilla
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Management of computing and information systems
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management

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Reviews

Reviewer: Satadip Dutta

The open source software development model differs from the traditional model in many ways. This paper provides a quantitative look at the open source development model being used for the Apache and Mozilla projects. The data collected from these projects is used to answer questions relating to the development process, to profile the contributors, and to examine defect tracking and resolution. The process used to collect process, contribution, and defect-related data from Apache and Mozilla is very extensive and convincing. The credibility and the relevance of the hypothesis derived from this data are subsequently very apt and prophetic. The conclusions of this article seem to be true for projects like Jboss (http://www.jboss.org) and Tomcat (http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/index.html). The recommendations made by the paper, in proposing a hybrid model for software development that combines aspects from the open source model and traditional model, provide a unique perspective for future software development projects. The paper provides excellent information, which can be of practical use in any software development project that wants to adopt some of the beneficial aspects of open source software development. Online Computing Reviews Service

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology

ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology Volume 11, Issue 3

July 2002

93 pages

ISSN:1049-331X

EISSN:1557-7392

DOI:10.1145/567793

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Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 July 2002

Published in TOSEM Volume 11, Issue 3

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https://doi.org/10.48175/IJARSCT-17611
Li YZhang HJin YRen ZDong LLyu JYang LLo DShao DFilkov VRay BZhou M(2024)An Explainable Automated Model for Measuring Software Engineer ContributionProceedings of the 39th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering10.1145/3691620.3695071(783-794)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3691620.3695071
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Tan XGong YHuang GWu HZhang L(2024)How to Gain Commit Rights in Modern Top Open Source Communities?Proceedings of the ACM on Software Engineering10.1145/36607841:FSE(1727-1749)Online publication date: 12-Jul-2024
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