nVidia squashes bugs, Open source interoperability suffers

[marsmissionaries]

Check it out (http://digg.com/linux_unix/nVidia_squashes_bugs_Open_source_interoperability_ suffers)

"Following advances in KDE4 development, a few bugs have surfaced that are relevant to other projects, mainly nVidia and GTK. While nVidia has stated that they are fixing their bug, GTK has discredited theirs, thus hurting interoperability between GTK applications and KDE4."

[23meg]

What a load of crap (pun intended).

Did you actually read the discussion in the bug tracker? Did you note the status of the bug?

The bug has been filed two days ago. Responses have come, and people are discussing the possible reasons and solutions. A judgment hasn't been made, and the bug status remains unaltered (not rejected). Two days is a pretty short period for a definitive decision on an issue of this complexity.


Instead of viewing the bug as a potential killer of interoperability, the GTK team has pretty much denied this being a bug.

The bug status is UNCONFIRMED and only two people have chimed in so far; one has indicated that the source of the problem may be the KDE code, or X, and the other has pointed to a possible workaround. It looks like the discussion will continue.



Now, what I don’t quite understand is how a Closed source company listens to it’s users more than a dedicated Open source company does.


Having your sources open has no necessary connection with how much you listen to your users.

Pointing out that the source of the malfunction may not be where the reporter indicated, and that further investigation is needed, isn't "not listening to your users"; it's regular procedure in dealing with bugs, and happens all the time. If anything, the bug was instantly attended and responded to, which in turn shows that someone cared and "listened".

And GTK+ isn't a company. And the comparison with NVIDIA is entirely out of place, not because of that, but because what they're said to have fixed is an entirely different bug that probably has nothing to do with this. "Company A fixed my bug, but project B didn't fix my other bug yet, and it's been.. two days!"; so what? Maybe they will? Maybe it's not a legitimate bug? Maybe it's a legitimate bug, but fixing it will mean breaking other things? Maybe more time and work from the different projects involved is needed to fix it?

If you care about interoperability, I suggest not fueling conflicts between projects with superficial arguments, and not taking technical disagreements out of context and making them look like they're social problems. It will help.