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You broke your analogy a bit there. You don't go to the production areas of packaged food companies because you assume that others are doing so - specifically,
by dTal 8y ago
You broke your analogy a bit there. You don't go to the production areas of packaged food companies because you assume that others are doing so - specifically, state regulators. It's not that no one is obviously getting sick - they might be getting sick in subtle ways they can't pin on the food, like long term heavy metal poisoning, in the same way that malicious software can be very quiet about it.
- Djvacto 8y agoThat's a good point. It's not a 1-1 analogy, but I think the overall principle applies. If it's open source, more people can regulate it, as opposed to less.
- dTal 8y agoOh no, it's a fine analogy! I just thought you muddled it a little at the end with the 'no one getting sick' part. It's important that source code be available for the same reason that food preparation not be done behind locked doors with secret ingredients - not so much so that everyone can see for themselves, but so that someone can, and raise the alarm for the rest of us if anything is amiss. The 'getting sick' part actually works too - it's important to be able to review the process precisely because it's not always immediately obvious if something is wrong.