[osv-list] Re: [Linux-aus] Windows: 30 billion crashes a year ?

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Tue, Sep 16, 2003 at 10:34:23PM +1000, Chris Samuel wrote:
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> 
> On Tuesday 16 Sep 2003 2:02 pm, Shane Stephens wrote:
> 
> > So 5% of machines crash twice daily.  How many machines crash every
> > day?  Dunno.  How many machines crash at least once a month?  Dunno.
> > What is the average number of crashes per machine per month?  Dunno.
> 
> Remember that these figures are (allegedly) derived from peoples XP systems 
> phoning home to MS to say they've died.
> 
> Steven D'Aprano from CyberSource on the OSV list did a bit more maths, which 
> I'lll ask him for permission to quote here.

Go right ahead.

If anyone wants more detail, let me know and I will send it.

But frankly, I don't especially think the figures mean very much, without 
some indication of how good Bill Gates' figure of 5% is and how it was 
derived. Garbage in, garbage out works for maths as well as computer 
programs you know :-)

The numbers sound reasonable, and I guess "reasonable" is as best we can
hope for in this sort of thing.


-- 
Steven D'Aprano 
Operations Manager 
Cybersource Pty Ltd, ABN 13 053 904 082 
Level 4, 10-16 Queen St, Melbourne VIC 3000 
Tel: +61 3 9621 2377   Fax: +61 3 9621 2477 
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