[ale] The FUD Never Stops

[Michael D. Hirsch]

On Friday 09 April 2004 04:22 pm, Charles Shapiro wrote:
> Another brave CEO of a proprietary software company whose business model
> is threatened by linux alerts us to the ever-present danger of the Open
> Source model.  I like his claim that the proliferation of Linux
> represents "a serious and urgent security threat" which is somehow not
> present in closed-source code. Ya just gotta love it.
>
> http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_vi
>ew&newsId=20040408005676&newsLang=en

That way lies paranoia.  I liked this quote from Ken Thompson:

    Thompson explained, "The moral is obvious. You can't trust code that you
    did not create yourself. No amount of source-level verification or
    scrutiny will protect you from using untrusted code."

If we go by that, you can't trust Microsoft, Sun, IBM, or any other OS 
provider--not just Linux.

So logically, the Dept of Defense can only use "roll you own" OSes.  And even 
there, would the Air Force want to trust an OS from the Army?  Would Infantry 
use an OS from Amored Vehicles?  ...

Y'all excuse me while I go and spend the rest of my life writing my own 
software.

Michael