Insuring Linux, Thanks to SCO

jtheory writes "There's an interesting article on Salon.com (free daypass available, ads, etc.) about the counter-reaction to SCO's attacks on Linux, and how SCO may actually be one of the best things to happen to Linux lately, because their attacks have turned a lot of attention to the possible Achilles' heel in the code contribution process. Includes some good detail on OSRM, a company offering insurance against lawsuits like SCO's, who notably hired Bruce Perens and PJ of Groklaw fame, and is doing their own extremely thorough analysis of the code and any possibility of improperly included code. The founder of OSRM also wrote a story called Why the Linux Community Needs Open Source Insurance on LinuxWorld." We've mentioned risk insurance before.

Comments

Re:OS Insurance

[J. Jacques]

"What's Linux insurance--switching to Mac OS X?" Nope, it's putting a hit out on Darl McBride.

Re:Best thing to happen?

[FlashBac]

hmm. Maybe... but, I feel good that people are looking really closely at where and who the code is comeing from.
Sorry to be all paronoid and things, but, it is abundantly possible for backdoors etc to be secreted into the kernal, by someone clever, and for these to be not noticed. I actually seem to remember this actually was caught happening before.

Re:Best thing to happen?

[FlashBac]

Troll???
You dont think its possible for a snippet of code with a non accidental itsy bitsy subtle little flaw to be submitted exists?
And that this person could later use this weakness to do bad things?
This is possible amigo. Be under no illusions. It has happened and been caught.
It is therefore nice for clever people to have a good look through the code again, because they might just see something fishy that they missed before.