Overcome your fear?
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| kikinovak Oct 11, 2014 6:25 AM EDT |
The only fear I have is when facing proprietary software. And I don't want to overcome it. |
| seatex Oct 11, 2014 3:02 PM EDT |
Let's see... Software code I can see vs. software code I can't see. Hmmm... I would think hidden code would be scarier. But I'm sure many view code itself as scary and feel safer not having access to it. |
| gus3 Oct 12, 2014 4:42 PM EDT |
When one stops thinking in terms of instructions, and instead thinks about the voltage/current switching, *then* it's time to be scared. |
| cr Oct 12, 2014 7:28 PM EDT |
Depends on the working context, gus3. When I'm working on/in code, I'm comfy with C- or Intel-style numerics, but when I break out the oscilloscope 0x42 becomes _|__ __|_. Trying to scope out an octal port while thinking in decimal... Now, *that'd* be scary. |
| Bob_Robertson Oct 13, 2014 11:51 AM EDT |
I don't understand how software can inspire fear. |
| BernardSwiss Oct 13, 2014 7:44 PM EDT |
> I don't understand how software can inspire fear. You're not considering the target audience for this article. Ie: the people who read Med Device Online (check out some of the other stories on http://www.meddeviceonline.com/ ) -- people who don't work in IT, who don't know a lot about Open Source Software, and who have never seen (that they know of, anyways) anybody using FOSS software and devices. So just imagine: You're making and selling medical technologies, including medical implants like pacemakers and insulin pumps, "mind-controlled" prosthetics, and other stuff. Computerization of this technology is a relatively recent field. All this stuff is mostly very expensive, highly regulated, and the consequences of design flaws are huge, whether in terms of lives or of money. Think massive, public, possibly career destroying lawsuits. Everything about your product from the "tricky", patented, ultra-special hardware components, to the connectors(mechanical or electrical) down to the very insulation on the wiring has to be tested and certified up the wazoo. Meanwhile, software has mostly been "something" that just runs the hardware (the important part), and you're not really familiar Open Source anyways (let alone convinced that everyone and his cousin Jack should have access that stuff -- who knows what they'll get up to). Up to now you've hired professionals, and payed for expensive licensed stuff -- if this stuff is $free, how good can it be, really? How well can software developers really know what they're doing? Wouldn't they be working for a proprietary company that charges big bucks for licensing? And who are you going to hold accountable for problems? You might need some straight dope to, from a source you're likely to consider as reasonably relevant and trustworthy. (Not to mention, a site you're likely to actually be reading.) Yeah... we've seen this story before, in other spheres of endeavour -- and it's getting old. This is old, old, tired, stale, old news to people who use Linux every day for day-to-day productivity, or run servers that require high reliability, or understand that their cell phone is heavily dependent on FOSS software. But we're not the target audience. |
| patrokov Oct 14, 2014 1:31 PM EDT |
the only fears of OSS I have is the one that happens when I type "service networking restart" and get this error message:
"Running /etc/init.d/networking restart is deprecated because it may not enable again some interfaces"
And then find out that there is no non-deprecated solution. Maybe I shouldn't use Debian anymore. Or when I can no longer use /etc/init.d/cupsd restart but have to use systemctl restart cupsd, because it means that my system has been infected with that systemd Trojan. Maybe I shouldn't use Arch anymore. Slowly I find that my OSS choices are dwindling away. |
| jdixon Oct 14, 2014 4:26 PM EDT |
> Slowly I find that my OSS choices are dwindling away. There's always the BSD's. |
| Koriel Oct 14, 2014 8:28 PM EDT |
Im already looking at moving back to Slack in the form of Salix as I don't see Slack being polluted anytime soon. |
| jdixon Oct 14, 2014 11:43 PM EDT |
> Im already looking at moving back to Slack... Well, you see, you have to leave before you can move back. :) |
| gus3 Oct 15, 2014 1:43 PM EDT |
"How can I miss you if you won't go away?" |
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