Raiden's Realm: Why do old bugs still exist?

Why do old bugs still exist? (Page 1 of 1)

Written by Steve Lake
Posted on: Nov 07, 2008 at 08:55am
Section: Editorials
Printer Friendly Version
Legacy URL

It's really begun to baffle me why certain bugs within the FOSS world haven't been fixed yet, or have taken so long to be fixed. A couple that come to mind come from recent experiences I've had either directly, or indirectly with these bugs.

The first is a bug that was reported on not too long back. It was a 25 year old bug found in the BSD's that had until recently not been addressed, touched, or actually fixed (aside from a quick bandaid) for over 25 years. The bug may even span back as far as 33 years to AT&T Unix. There's another too that affects Linux users. (what? Did you think that only the BSD's and unix's had old unaddressed bugs?) It originally became a problem back in 2000, but wasn't addressed until 2006, and even today it's not fixed.

Another is a bug originally reported back in 1988 dealing with Gmake (aka gnu make) that has been reported repeatedly, and yet has not been fixed. And I could go on all day about bugs like this, but I won't. What bothers me is that old bugs like this continue to pervade the Open Source world, and yet are not fixed. If the application is relative and the bug is relative, why isn't it fixed? It seems silly to me that they are ignored.

Now if an application or function is no longer valid, has been deprecated, or is no longer used, then I have no problem letting old bug lie. But if it's part of something that's still being used, it needs to be addressed. And I'm one who believes that the oldest bugs need the most attention as they've been out there the longest. When going to a restaurant, who do they serve first? If they always served the newest customers first, you'd never eat there again. But instead they serve customers in a first come, first serve order. Bugs should be handled in the same way.

Now certainly there are critical bugs that need to be addressed quickly for security reasons, but if it's not a security issue, then older bugs get addressed first, and if a bug has to be passed over for the time being due to technical reasons, then be sure it's the first you come back to. Leaving bugs to linger for years on end is a bad thing, and not only makes users angry, but it makes the FOSS world look bad too. And more bad press is the last thing we need right now.

Discuss this! ( 10 comments )

Raiden's Realm Social Bookmarking
If you have any problems with any of these links, please let us know. Thanks.

Average vistor rating: 4.2 out of 5 (5 total votes)