"Most LinuxDevices.com readers are well aware of how difficult
it is to judge the utility of competing software development
methods in objective and quantifiable ways. The proliferation of
languages, software engineering methodologies, and tools suggests
that it is not easy to determine which way is best -- clearly, if
one way were verifiably best, in a results-oriented field the
inferior methods would quickly be culled out in favor of the one
superior method. We spend considerable time experimenting to find
our own best tools and methods; few of us would contend that these
decisions can be determined by purely objective means.
"Consider, then, the difficulties faced by Jerry Krasner, who
recently published a report on a study intended to determine
whether Linux or Windows is the better operating system for
developing embedded systems. This determination had to be conducted
and reported in a way that would convince developers of the
report's validity, yet with public knowledge of the fact that
Microsoft had paid for both the study and the report.
"As we shall see, this task proved to be formidable..."
