How does the open source development model affect the software?

  

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So everyone knows that open source software is developed a little differently than traditional proprietary - but how is it different?  How does that difference in the development model affect the software itself?  That's what the guys at How Software is Built have set out to find out.  They are interviewing lots of people about different development models.  (I know this because they interviewed me.)  You can read my entire interview online  - they asked about everything from why would you start an open source application to how does support work to  how successful will Second Life be as an open source project.  It was one of those interviews where you actually get to think a lot - I'm following their blog as it looks like their other interviews have been as thought provoking as I found mine to be.

One of the things that they made very clear up front is that they are funded by Microsoft.  I didn't find them to be biased towards proprietary software at all - as a matter of fact, they seemed very knowledgeable about open source software.  I had a really good time talking to them.