There are 3 reader comments
51 01 2003 4:51PM
They are evaluating 2.1? The current release version of apache is 2.0.46.
24 27 2004 1:24PM
What's on your mind, if you will allow the overstatement?
This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.
automaticmonkey21 01 2003 4:21PM
I think both the press release and the Remaindered Link's description is a bit misleading.
The pdf mentions:"In a sampling of 200 projects totaling 35 million lines of code..." to determine its average defects/KSLC, but does not reference what projects were reviewed or if they were even web servers.
Beyond that, examining the static structure of code to determine possible defects is handy, but only to a point. All of the 29 Null Pointer Dereference "defects" are preceeded by lengthy precondition lists and the pdf gives no indication of the context or frequency they are satisfied, thus producing the error.
I'm not defending Apache here, "Great, 31 defects, it's open source, go fix them," but it is obnoxious when a company releases PR material in the form of a whitepaper that prompts people to conclude Apache is "as buggy as comparable commercial Web servers."