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Cultivating Open Source Software
,----[ Quote ]
| But for your open source software to be
| successful, you need to provide the full source
| code every time you make a release. This
| expectation is built into the GNU General
| Public License, but it is also a key to
| building a successful community. Making the
| source code available to your users allows for
| the cooperative development and rapid code
| improvement that fosters "mind share". Not
| provide the source code - such as making a
| "testing-only release" or a "preview version" -
| means your users will not be able to see how
| your code works. More importantly, your users
| will not be able to help you fix bugs. Without
| a way to contribute, developers tend to lose
| interest in a project, and find something else
| to do.
`----
http://scienceblogs.com/collectiveimagination/2009/10/cultivating_open_source_softwa.php
Recent:
On open source vs. disclosed source voting systems
,----[ Quote ]
| On Tuesday, the Election Technology Council (a trade association of four
| major American voting system manufacturers) put out a white paper on
| open-source and voting systems. It's nice to see them finally talking about
| the issue, but there's a distinctive cluelessness in this paper about what,
| exactly, open source is and what it means for a system to be secure. For
| example, in a sidebar titled "Disclosed vs. Open: Clarifying Misconceptions",
| the report states:
|
| ... taking a software product that was once proprietary and disclosing
| its full source code to the general public will result in a complete
| forfeiture of the software's security ... Although computer scientists
| chafe at the thought of "security through obscurity," there remains some
| underlying truths to the idea that software does maintain a level of
| security through the lack of available public knowledge of the inner
| workings of a software program.
|
| Really? No. Disclosing the source code only results in a complete forfeiture
| of the software's security if there was never any security there in the first
| place. If the product is well-engineered, then disclosing the software will
| cause no additional security problems. If the product is poorly-engineered,
| then the lack of disclosure only serves the purpose of delaying the
| inevitable.
`----
http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/dwallach/open-source-vs-disclosed-source-voting-systems
Editor's Note: Linux Needs Fewer Friends
,----[ Quote ]
| Linus' disdain for Richard Stallman, the Free Software
| Foundation, and enforcing the GPL in regards to the kernel
| is well-known. Now we have another high-ranking kernel
| developer dissing on Free Software. Why? What is about
| freedom that turns off so many people? Is there suddenly so
| much Free Software in the world that we need to pollute it
| with closed, proprietary gunk? I'm not going to go all
| pundit and claim this is a trend that signals the doom of
| Linux, though it is tempting. A core, essential freedom of
| Free Software is the end user gets to control what goes on
| their systems. All these people who think freedom means
| forcing more proprietary junk on everyone are missing the
| point by several country miles.
|
| There are a number of same old oft-repeated responses to
| these issues: "I just want it to work. Leave the politics
| out of it. Too much idealism is bad." etc etc... a lot of
| these are answered in "Myths, Lies, and Truths about the
| Linux kernel". That is Greg Kroah-Hartman's famous talk
| that states plainly "Closed source Linux kernel modules are
| illegal." Greg K-H went on to launch the Free Linux Driver
| Development! project, which has succeeded in attracting a
| lot of vendors to the world of GPL drivers. Mr.
| Kroah-Hartman is also a leading kernel developer, so it is
| good I did not cry doom.
`----
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2008-12-31-022-35-OP-DV
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