Re: [ProgSoc] Having source code and bugs at the one time

[Telford Tendys <telford@nospam.progsoc.uts.edu.au>]

> Actually it is. Discover a critical security bug in an MS product, and
> here's the drill:

[snip]

Almost enough to make you have sympathy for people that wontonly
rip through bug-ridden security systems and trash those NT boxes
on a bulk scale. Most system admins probably expect their bulletproof
NT box to crash once in a while anyhow so they will take a serious
beating before they start thinking something is wrong.

The big pity of it is that when people lash out in such a way,
the ones that suffer are not those who deserve to suffer but the
users who really don't know any better <sigh>. Tis a cruel world.

> The availability of the source isn't a direct advantage to many users,
> but it isn't a disadvantage to them either. If bugs are discovered
> however, far more people are able to act to fix them then if you are
> locked in to vendor-controlled software. At worst, if you REALLY need a
> bug fixed in a piece of open-source software, you can find a programmer
> somewhere and hand him/her money and get a fix. If you use
> vendor-controlled software, you'll just have to wait.

Well you could wave enough money in the air to make the vendor themselves
sit up and take notice. In the case of MS though, well I have trouble
counting that high let alone actually earning that much.

	- Tel
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