All Source Code Should Be Open, Revisited

cconnell writes "In my last article, I presented the idea that all commercial source code should be open. In other words, part of the delivery package for any software purchase should be a copy of the source files. If everyone saw software vendors' design and coding, the vendors might stop shipping us such lousy programs. The article generated a fair amount of controversy. My latest piece follows up on this idea and includes a few adjustments that respond to reader feedback."

Comments

Attacking the Problem from the wrong direction...

[trims]

The original article (and the subsequent followup) attempt to solve a problem using a desired tool, rather than looking for the right tool for the job. A lot like the old saying "If all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail."

The base problem that I think he's trying to solve here is that software quality is abysmal. That is, all commercial (and most free/open) software is riddled with bugs, many of which are well-known at ship time, but haven't been fixed.

Making source code available (whether as Open Source, Free Software, or a eyes-only copy-restricted) is orthagonal to this problem. yes, maybe, it could help. But that's incidental to the Free/Open software movement. And (as many people have pointed out), there are many problems with providing source with all programs, most of which are massive barriers to any help with quality of the software.

The fundamental flaw here is that commercial software's quality is the producer's responsibility, not the target audience's. In Free/Open software, the developers and audience have significant overlap, so it can be truly said that the audience can help quality. This is patently untrue for closed-source programs: the development community is very tightly controlled, and the user community has no real method of influencing quality (other than by not buying the product), even if provided with the source code.

So, this leaves us with the case of how to make the developer's produce better quality software. Fundamentally, we do this the EXACT SAME WAY all other industries insure minimal quality control: LEGISLATE IT. There are oft-quoted sayings about "if the car companies built cars like software companies build software..." and others to that effect. They all point a massive discrepency in the legal status of software: it doesn't play by any of the traditional product-liability and quality-control laws that every other product industry abides by. Yes, that will change the nature of the software industry: that's the point. And NO, it will not harm Free/Open software (as gifts - i.e. giving away something - are not coverd bty under the various product-liability laws)

You really want to fix the software quality problem? Require that software companies have a warranty of fitness. Require them to refund money for defective products (opened or not). Make them liable for damage caused by known defects. In short, treat them like anybody else. Software isn't special. It's time the software industry grew up.

See my previous post on why the software industry should quite being treated like a spoiled teenager.

The problem is real. The solution provided by the article is wrong. I'm right.

:-)

-Erik