The newest edition of Dr. Dobb’s Journal wrote:
Open-source developers do something that Microsoft and Apple can’t: Deliver a complex bundle of software on time, year after year.
I already impressed with the work that Eclipse Foundation had done. From release 3.0 to 3.3, I am one of many programmers that downloaded the newest milestone every time it released. And I never have to wait more than 1 week before that milestone published. And for the stable version, it always delivered on time.
I don’t know if they do it with sacrificing the quality of the software. As far as I experience, that was never the case and I always satisfied with the major release (well, since I always try the milestones, you were probably more satisfied that I am). How can they do that?
I expect there are a lot of conflict of interests happen in the organization. But eventually they solve it and deliver a product that is used by millions of programmers. And I don’t say Java programmers. There are also many C++ programmers that use CDT and web developers that use Aptana etc. This is simply amazing!
Does open source project even have a deadline in which they have to release?
Some, like Eclipse and Ubuntu, do have.