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What's So Precious About Bad Software?

Posted by kdawson on from the ugly-to-boot dept.

David Gerard invites to read Carla Schroeder from Enterprise Networking Planet, who gets down to the real reason why companies want to keep their code proprietary, with examples. Quoting: "We are drowned in tides of twaddle about precious IP, Trade Sekkrits, Sooper Original Algorithms that must not be exposed to eyes of mere mortals, and all manner of silly excuses. But what's the real reason for closed, proprietary code? Embarrassment."

2 of 278 comments (clear)

  1. It goes back too... by iknownuttin · · Score: 5, Informative
    American Airlines and their Sabre booking software. AA had a tech edge back in the 70's with their software. Other airlines actually rented, not licensed, AA's software.

    In a nutshell, I think corps think that their software is soooo competitively important, that they don't want to release it - regardless of how bad it is.

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  2. Often companies can't release it for legal reasons by AaronW · · Score: 5, Informative

    A lot of software contains proprietary libraries or other pieces of software provided by 3rd parties, which they are not allowed to distribute. It can be a huge job to strip or re-write those libraries, like what Sun had to do with Solaris, and if it's old software, it just isn't worth their time.

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