BBC TV: Click: Free=beer and facebook-flaming

[Ben Finney]

Florian Weimer <fw at deneb.enyo.de> writes:

> These days, there's hardly any widely used piece of proprietary
> software for which you can't get the source code.

There's a huge gulf between "possible through illegal and dubious
channels to get some source code for what might be the program", and
"can get the corresponding source code easily, openly, and legally
from the vendor themselves".

For the purposes discussed in this thread, the former isn't adequate.

> It's also not clear if source code availability is that helpful for
> uncovering security bugs.

This is contrary to all prevailing wisdom from security professionals.
You're making an extraordinary claim, that needs extraordinary
evidence to support.

-- 
 \      "Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?" "Yes Brain, but |
  `\   if our knees bent the other way, how would we ride a bicycle?"  |
_o__)                                         -- _Pinky and The Brain_ |
Ben Finney