Saturday, February 18, 2012
Question about Open Source Software
Even though the idea of Open Source sounds very attractive for it is free and distributive, the concerns is centralized at the accountability of the open source program since the final product is worked by many people who may or may not be trustworthy. Any of its author can conveniently leave a "back door" in the code which makes the users' computers vulnerable. When the software is wanted in important fields, such as finance, or national defense. The cost of investigating such program may be too huge which can potentially be higher than the cost of developing the same software privately.
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I would argue that Open Source projects are less likely to have "back doors" since the code is open to everyone and they can be found by anyone who understands the code. It is a common belief among the computer elite that you should never be installing anything on your computer that you can't inspect the code of and compile yourself.
ReplyDeleteI agree that code made by a respected and successful software company is probably more trustworthy than software made by a random group of anonymous amateurs, but that doesn't really have anything to do with the whether their software is Open Source or not.
I agree that computer elites are not likely be ticked. However, my target group is people who doesn't have sufficient knowledge. Open source software is generally free of charge due to the fact that it is distributive, thus it certainly attractiveness many people who are not very good at programming to use it.
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