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I assume that it depends on old code. With old code opensourcing can be really tough. One reason of course is "embarrassment" as it's "ugly" code and you want

I assume that it depends on old code. With old code opensourcing can be really tough. One reason of course is "embarrassment" as it's "ugly" code and you want to run a full review and audit and eventually cover private APIs from other modules. That's however solvable. More complicated is another reason: Legacy software often contains code contributed by contractors and acquired from external vendors, where there is no license for making it open source. Sometimes such third party code is even deeply webbed in and legal review is a pain as you have to figure out the origin of essentially each line of code. This can be a lot of work. I observed how Sun did this with Solaris and over multiple years managed to bring it down to a handful libs with third party code (some internationalisation thing comes to mind, meanwhile replaced in the illumnos sphere)

giancarlostoro 6y ago
> One reason of course is "embarrassment" as it's "ugly" code and you want to run a full review and audit and eventually cover private APIs from other modules. That's however solvable. Make sure there's no offensive variable names and comments left over from that one guy who used to work here.
- syshum 6y ago
  Everything is offensive today so that is probably a fools errand
  - johannes1234321 6y ago
    Considering that they are distributing other software in source and APIs to closed source that doesn't seem to be an issue for them. (And maybe not everything is offensive, but un-offensive terms exist?)
  - keeganpoppen 6y ago
    all the more reason for me to be terrified about some of my comments and commit messages... lol
    - syshum 6y ago
      All the more reason me not to care. safetyism is destroying society IMO "It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so f'in what." --Steven Fry

giancarlostoro 6y ago

> One reason of course is "embarrassment" as it's "ugly" code and you want to run a full review and audit and eventually cover private APIs from other modules. That's however solvable. Make sure there's no offensive variable names and comments left over from that one guy who used to work here.

syshum 6y ago
Everything is offensive today so that is probably a fools errand
- johannes1234321 6y ago
  Considering that they are distributing other software in source and APIs to closed source that doesn't seem to be an issue for them. (And maybe not everything is offensive, but un-offensive terms exist?)
- keeganpoppen 6y ago
  all the more reason for me to be terrified about some of my comments and commit messages... lol
  - syshum 6y ago
    All the more reason me not to care. safetyism is destroying society IMO "It's now very common to hear people say, 'I'm rather offended by that.' As if that gives them certain rights. It's actually nothing more... than a whine. 'I find that offensive.' It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. 'I am offended by that.' Well, so f'in what." --Steven Fry