Do you think Open Source Software means Free Software?
June 13, 2007
What is the different between Open Source and Free Software?
Open source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement.The fundamental difference between the two movements is in their values, their ways of looking at the world. For the Open Source movement, non-free software is a suboptimal solution. For the Free Software movement, non-free software is a social problem and free software is the solution.
What is mean by Open Source Software?
Open Source software is a free one where the source code is freely available. Programmers can read, modify, improve, adapt, fix bugs…. everything. There are many advantages of Open Source software. But what are all the disadvantages?
- The software will be qualified with the contribution of many people. Its not possible to audit the entire code to prevent voilation of previous vertions. This makes opportunities for the contributors to release trespassing codes. It does not include any intellectual property representations, warranties or indemnities.
- No guarantee of quality or fitness
- Is it secured? No one can guarantee it. Those softwares are not suitable for Organizations. If you make any improvements in it, you’ll let the world know. Then where are the security concerns in it?
I feel Open Source better when I’m doing my personal projects. But If I’m running a company, I don’t think that will work. I won’t suggest it. Your data’s need to be secured.
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1.
Anonymous | June 14, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Agreed to your first disadvantage.
# No guarantee of quality or fitness
- What makes you think so? A proprietary software is tested by only limited number of people. Whereas, an open source is tested by a community of coders. And, these people volunteer out of passion and not out of compulsion/part of profession.
# Is it secured? No one can guarantee it. Those softwares are not suitable for Organizations. If you make any improvements in it, you’ll let the world know. Then where are the security concerns in it?
- What is the difference between whitebox and blackbox testing? What is scope of blackbox and whitebox? And, when the code is out in the open, there are more chances of trusting the code as its scrutinized by more and more folks. FYI, all computer security cryptography algorithms should be published in open code for the critics to evaluate it. If it makes sense for highly academic cryptography, i believe it makes a lot of sense for business application code.
I just wrote down the things that came to my mind. No offense meant!
2.
Pat | June 15, 2007 at 6:19 am
# No guarantee of quality or fitness
Without contractual commitments of quality or fitness, the licencee must accept the risk that the software contains fatal errors, viruses or other problems that may have downstream financial consequences.
# Is it secured?
I accept your answer. But if the code is out, the chance of security leakage is more when compared to the licenced one.
Comments are welcome. This will help us to correct from our wrong assumption.
I’m not blaming all the open source softwares or about a specific one. This is my general comment about Open Source Softwares. Maximum softwares are having those disadvantages…
3.
Anonymous | June 15, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Lovely! My comments in bold.
# No guarantee of quality or fitness
Without contractual commitments of quality or fitness, the licencee must accept the risk that the software contains fatal errors, viruses or other problems that may have downstream financial consequences.
Few lines from the Microsoft Windows XP End user license agreement.. [the software u pay 4]
Manufacturer and its suppliers (including MS, Microsoft Corporation(including its subsidiaries) and their respective suppliers) provide the SOFTWARE and support services (if any) AS IS AND WITH ALL FAULTS, and hereby disclaim all other warranties and conditions, whether express, implied or statutory, including, but not limited to, any (if any) implied warranties, duties or conditions of merchantability, of fitness for a particular purpose, of reliability or availability, of accuracy or completeness of responses, of results, of workmanlike effort, of lack of viruses, and of lack of negligence, all with regard to the SOFTWARE, and the provision of or failure to provide support or other services, information, software, and related content through the SOFTWARE or otherwise arising out of the use of the SOFTWARE.
4.
Anonymous | June 15, 2007 at 6:31 pm
And, for the second point.. again in bold.
# Is it secured?
I accept your answer. But if the code is out, the chance of security leakage is more when compared to the licenced one.
Valid point. But, debatable though. Just imagine that, a mistake is known only to a few(including the criminal and accomplice), do you think they will put it out in the open or try to do a cover up? mmm.. probably thats the case with any proprietary money minting software company. So, those(crooks) who are aware of it get to enjoy the advantage. Probably, even the company may not know such an issue exists. Crux is, the *number* of people scrutinising a task or code or document or ur lunch decides the security .. thats my take.. appreciate ur reply.