The Version Twist
Written by admin on April 21, 2009
This one simple question of secret software versus Open Source is deeply confused by the matter of versions. The central problem with software is that it is fallible. One can prove a piece of software does not always work as it should. Occasionally one can prove that a piece of software does not work at all. Tools exist that can bring any piece of software crashing to its knees, so a degree of fallibility is near-universal. The fallibility of secret software is not obvious until that software is finished and exposed to the market. So secret software is recognised as fallible after it receives a version number and after work has ceased. Public or Open Source software is acknowledged as fallible before it receives a version number and before work has ceased. So Open Source software appears fallible at an earlier stage in its development than secret software.
By the merciless process of logic, however, it is clear that an Open Source version (say 1.0) must be better than a secret version. This is because developers of the secret software do not have access to all the insights that others would provide if the software wasn’t secret. Secret software developers are therefore handicapped from the beginning.
Posted in: Uncategorized
