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> why does anything needs to be open source in the first place? Not advocating FOSS approach for anything, and I'm not strictly speaking of GH in that context,
by squarefoot 6y ago
> why does anything needs to be open source in the first place?
Not advocating FOSS approach for anything, and I'm not strictly speaking of GH in that context, but generally, malicious code loves being hidden into closed source software since it's the best effective way to keep it hard to control and correct.
When privacy, security, safety, accountability become important, the FOSS approach might solve a problems or two.
Of course the downside is that everyone can look at it, so building a billions worth business out of a fork + 10 line changes + renaming of a FOSS project cannot work without violating the license by keeping it closed.
- yoloClin 6y agoOn the flipside, it's more plausible for an actor to get malicious code into a project in order to infect a target. Sure it has to be obscure enough to pass any code reviews during PR and/or involves compromising a contributor but it is possible and something I see happening in the next 10 years. I'm also genuinely curious how many people actively review all the code they actually run. I doubt anybody but the very largest tech companies and high-end government would actually be able to afford and resources such a feat, and even then they would have DMZ-type areas to detonate unaudited software.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]