The Industry choice

[Cameron Laird]

In article <mailman.72.1104706888.22381.python-list at python.org>,
Terry Reedy <tjreedy at udel.edu> wrote:
>
>"Steve Holden" <steve at holdenweb.com> wrote in message 
>news:_rTBd.66275$Jk5.46 at lakeread01...
>> Well clearly there's a spectrum. However, I have previously written that 
>> the number of open source projects that appear to get stuck somewhere 
>> between release 0.1 and release 0.9 is amazingly large, and does imply 
>> some dissipation of effort.
>
>And how do the failure and effort dissipation rates of open source code 
>compare to those of closed source code?  Of course, we have only anecdotal 
>evidence that the latter is also 'amazingly large'.  And, to be fair, the 
>latter should include the one-programmer proprietary projects that 
>correspond to the one-programmer open projects.
>
>Also, what is 'amazing' to one depends on one's expectations ;-).  It is 
>known, for instance, that some large fraction of visible retail business 
>fail within a year.  And that natural selection is based on that fact that 
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The usual measurements and estimates are generally between 15% and
30%.  "Desirable" businesses--restaurants, for example, or computing
consultancies--are even more likely to fail.