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'Would they have considered obscure Russian software if they hadn’t been able to examine the source code? “Never in a million years,” Prince says. “If it hadn’t

by devx 13y ago

'Would they have considered obscure Russian software if they hadn’t been able to examine the source code? “Never in a million years,” Prince says. “If it hadn’t been open-source, we wouldn’t have trusted it.”' And that's how a lot of countries will feel about using proprietary (or even open source) software from US in the future, after all the NSA revelations.

chatman 13y ago
Open source software is not same as free software. One needs free software (which is open source, as well as give users complete freedom) to ensure their privacy.
- Xylakant 13y ago
  In terms of trust: No. As long as I can get the source, modify it and compile my own version, I'm totally in the green as far as privacy and security are concerned. There's a lot of reasons to prefer free software over mere open source software, but privacy is none of them.
  - chatman 13y ago
    Android is "open source", yet there may be restrictions on your ability to compile and run your copy of the source code on your device. Can you trust the OEMs that they are running the same code as you have a copy of?
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
richardwhiuk 13y ago
I think he'd have probably answered the same to 'Would they have considered obscure software if they hadn’t been able to examine the source code?' - the salient points being obscure and closed source, not Russian.
mintplant 13y ago
If it's not open-source, I won't use it in a production environment, period. I would never willingly tie myself to something that I have absolutely no control over, and could up and die or change models at any moment.
jared314 13y ago
That is exactly the reason I trust Nginx, and ignore G-WAN [1]. [1] http://gwan.com/faq#license http://gwan.com/faq#license
- Kliment 13y ago
  I'd never heard of gwan before, but just reading that answer puts it on my permanent shitlist.

by devx 13y ago

chatman 13y ago

Open source software is not same as free software. One needs free software (which is open source, as well as give users complete freedom) to ensure their privacy.

Xylakant 13y ago
In terms of trust: No. As long as I can get the source, modify it and compile my own version, I'm totally in the green as far as privacy and security are concerned. There's a lot of reasons to prefer free software over mere open source software, but privacy is none of them.
- chatman 13y ago
  Android is "open source", yet there may be restrictions on your ability to compile and run your copy of the source code on your device. Can you trust the OEMs that they are running the same code as you have a copy of?
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

richardwhiuk 13y ago

I think he'd have probably answered the same to 'Would they have considered obscure software if they hadn’t been able to examine the source code?' - the salient points being obscure and closed source, not Russian.

mintplant 13y ago

If it's not open-source, I won't use it in a production environment, period. I would never willingly tie myself to something that I have absolutely no control over, and could up and die or change models at any moment.

jared314 13y ago

That is exactly the reason I trust Nginx, and ignore G-WAN [1]. [1] http://gwan.com/faq#license http://gwan.com/faq#license

Kliment 13y ago
I'd never heard of gwan before, but just reading that answer puts it on my permanent shitlist.