Re: [PLUG] OT: Suspected hacker attack - Can anyone advise?

["Michael Leone" <turgon@pil.net>]

> I used to use a contact manager that was proprietary. The license
> didn't prevent me from doing what I wanted (keeping track of contact
> and calendar info). The app was better than any other I have found
> before or since.
>
> The company that made it went out of business. The intellectual
> property (source code) was sold from one company to another, but never
> resurrected as working code. When I got a Pilot, I found that there
> was no working sync software for my contact db, just a buggy
> first-draft sync thing that worked once in a while.
>
> Now, if it had been open source, I could have (in principle) fixed
> this. At least I would have had the choice.

True; you could have. But then again, how many users of that software (in
reality) actually could? How many are programmers knowledgeable enough to
fix it; re-compile it, etc?

Suppose *I* had fixed the problem in question, and - being a nice guy -
posted the fixed version for anyone to download. Now you've got it, and are
using it.

Now a bug pops up. In the meantime, I've stopped using the software, and
stopped supporting it. Now you've got to wait until some other kind soul can
fix it for you (presuming that this kind soul knows what they're doing, and
won't introduct new bugs).

At some point, it begins to resemble "On the Waterfront " - "I've always
depended on the kindness of strangers". Because that's what volunteer
support is - kindness. There's no financial incentive for me to try to keep
you happy; I would do it because I like to.

So GPL has it's own worries. I'm sure we've all come across neat and
interesting software, that's just been languishing or never finished,
because the original volunteer effort fizzled out for one reason or another.

Yes, it could (and - as shown by your experience) happen with commercial
software. Yes, it's much less likely to happen with a large volunteer base
(like Linux itself - I doubt the kernel developers will ever run out of
volunteers). Still, it's always a risk you take.

And yes, I know business people who avoid using GPL software specifically
for that reason - no one point of support; no person to hold legally (or
financially) accountable. Yes, this opinion still exists in a lot of
businesses.





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