4 ms·

Yep. The whole system seems backwards. "This software is safe for use in a nuclear reactor". Not "this software, that I made in highschool for the lulz, is not

Yep. The whole system seems backwards. "This software is safe for use in a nuclear reactor". Not "this software, that I made in highschool for the lulz, is not safe to be used in a nuclear reactor". Software should come with guarantees if guarantees are needed. It should not come with an exhaustive list of non-guarantees.

sthatipamala 13y ago
You expect merchantability of products all the time. Otherwise, people could sell you all kinds of products with known, dangerous defects (e.g your car). Why should software be different?
- gojomo 13y ago
  Why should free source code, published into the ether without any exchange of consideration, be held to the same standards as a product sold by a merchant?
- jsmeaton 13y ago
  Packaged software that is sold, to me, is different to code that you put up on GitHub for safe keeping. But I still think we've gone in the wrong direction. And to your example regarding cars, such a guarantee could be "this car is safe to drive on [roads]". Replace "roads" with the legal name for surfaces where cars can be driven. The underlying problem though is that there are such a large number of people that refuse to take responsibility for their own actions. "But, your honour, the guarantee said I could drive on roads. It didn't mention anything about being blind folded while doing so. It wasn't my fault I'm now paralysed". A pretty ridiculous example; and probably a naive one as well. But the law systems we live with are way too complicated. And I feel the people, whose job is to "interpret" the law (judges) are doing a terrible job upholding the spirit of law.
- anotherhue 13y ago
  If it's advertised as being suitable for important, dangerous things, and money changes hands, then sure I agree with you; but if a bug in glibc causes problems of an important and dangerous type, I don't see how any reasonable legal system could point the finger at the maintainers.
rmc 13y ago
Software should come with guarantees if guarantees are needed. It should not come with an exhaustive list of non-guarantees. Legally a lot of software (& things) comes with default guarantees. You have to opt out of some guarantees.

sthatipamala 13y ago

You expect merchantability of products all the time. Otherwise, people could sell you all kinds of products with known, dangerous defects (e.g your car). Why should software be different?

gojomo 13y ago
Why should free source code, published into the ether without any exchange of consideration, be held to the same standards as a product sold by a merchant?
jsmeaton 13y ago
Packaged software that is sold, to me, is different to code that you put up on GitHub for safe keeping. But I still think we've gone in the wrong direction. And to your example regarding cars, such a guarantee could be "this car is safe to drive on [roads]". Replace "roads" with the legal name for surfaces where cars can be driven. The underlying problem though is that there are such a large number of people that refuse to take responsibility for their own actions. "But, your honour, the guarantee said I could drive on roads. It didn't mention anything about being blind folded while doing so. It wasn't my fault I'm now paralysed". A pretty ridiculous example; and probably a naive one as well. But the law systems we live with are way too complicated. And I feel the people, whose job is to "interpret" the law (judges) are doing a terrible job upholding the spirit of law.
anotherhue 13y ago
If it's advertised as being suitable for important, dangerous things, and money changes hands, then sure I agree with you; but if a bug in glibc causes problems of an important and dangerous type, I don't see how any reasonable legal system could point the finger at the maintainers.

rmc 13y ago

Software should come with guarantees if guarantees are needed. It should not come with an exhaustive list of non-guarantees. Legally a lot of software (& things) comes with default guarantees. You have to opt out of some guarantees.