[asterisk-users] Cisco vs Asterisk

[Patrick]

Al Baker wrote:
> Quote
> 
> "Yet amazingly (if this is, indeed, a source of amazement for you), CCM 
> and other Cisco software can be just as buggy as anything OSS, if not 
> worse. "
> 
> This is simply NOT TRUE and shows a complete lack of understanding of modern software development.
> CISCO software is developed in a CMM environment.
> It has a formal test methodology and uses Automated Testing on EACH new release to ensure that 100% of the software that functioned in the Last Release, actually works in this release.
> Further, there is mandatory "soak-testing"  for all new software.
> Sorry, anyone who wants to compare Professional TELCO GRADE software development with Open Source is just Completely and Totally freakin clueless.

I don't know where you got this idea but I've worked in the telco grade
equipment business for years and I can assure you that I've seen bug
riddled, jaw dropping releases that were borderline pathetic. Besides 
Benoit's examples of the CSR-1 and IOS releases, ask anyone that had the 
pleasure of using Cisco's early CCM releases (iirc those still ran on 
Windows). Maybe this comes as a shock but many vendors actually use 
their customers as a testing platform. They sell them stuff that has 
some, more or many bugs and fix stuff moving forward. They might even 
charge their customers for the latest releases with the bug fixes. Check 
out the changelogs of Cisco SIP firmware releases which you can only get 
legally when you pay for a SmartNet contract.

A reason one might *think* that vendors have this elaborate development
and testing methodology in place and that their stuff rocks in the
stability and no-bugs-found-here department is to give oneself some
piece of mind over the crapload of money forked over for the product and
another crapload of money for the support contract/SLA.

Not sure what the term is in English but I think it is positive
cognitive dissonance.

/me steps down from soapbox now :)

Regards,
Patrick