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Proprietary vs. OSS Software: The Debate Continues

Posted by gsh on · 7 comments
OSWeekly.com; By Matt Hartley 		Mail this story
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Proprietary code powers the world banks, networks, voting machines and other critical applications that we regularly interact with. But the real question is where mission critical applications like this can be done with open source code, as many open source advocates would like to see happen. There are concerns regarding the security of allowing open source applications into the mission critical fields, such as voting and banking, while others believe that with certain implementations, it could be done securely.

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Comments (7)

reverse engineering

q ·
"First off, if the code is available to anyone, how would end users be protected from reverse engineering efforts?"

When one gets the source code, one has to reverse engineer it to understand it, I guess :)
hughesjr ·
UMMM .... one reverse engineers things that they do not have the source code for :D

If you have the source code, you can FORWARD engineer (also know as BUILD) it, no reverse engineering required :D
jezuch ·
And why reverse engineering is bad, by the way? Is it a synonym to "stealing"?
SamShazaam ·
The writer does not seem to grasp that proprietary does not equate to secret or unknown to every one. It is only secret from those trying to obey the law. To those who don't care about the law this is merely a detail to be dealt with.

Security through obscurity does not work.

With OSS there is at least an opportunity to protect yourself.

Debate?

Bob_Robertson ·
The one between proprietary software makers and F/OSS writers/users.

Proprietary: Hey! You have to pay us!

F/OSS: No.

It was a short debate, easy to miss.
jezuch ·
Ah, thanks, I get it now ;)

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