To the vast majority of users, Linux is just as much a black box as Windows. Indeed, I think my Tivo DVR runs Linux, and in principle I have access to the source, but I would no more consider trying to fix a bug in it than I would remove my own appendix.
Given the whole range of programs and projects, some open, some not, I find it hard to say that I have more confidence in one class than another ... compare Adobe Acrobat to GCC? In the realm of computer algebra systems, one trick is to do the same computation in different systems. If you get different answers, one or all of them are mistakes. If you get the same answers, all of them are either correct or all of them are wrong. That last possibility is unfortunately credible; I have encountered a number of "system independent" errors. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URLs: http://www.sagemath.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
