From: "Geo." 

"Joe Barr"  wrote in message
news:3df72abe$1{at}w3.nls.net...

> If it is closed source, the user can never benefit because the programmer
> can't get to it.  If it is open source, the user can benefit because the
> programmer can get to it.

And when you apply next week's batch of security patches, you going to have
the programmer get to it again because he wasn't part of the dev team and
so it didn't get fixed in the distro?

You know how knoppix got fixed for the thinkpad T30, Klaus fixed it. You
know how XP got fixed for the sony 17sf monitor, the NT team fixed it. Do
you know why NTmail doesn't install as an open relay, because Gordano fixed
it.

Things get fixed when the people writing them want to fix them, things
don't get fixed because some user hires a programmer to twiddle his
personal bits.


Again, for a programmer, perhaps you can join a dev team and have an effect
on a project, but for the vast bulk of users this is an unrealistic
expectation, to them source code or no source code makes squat difference.

Geo.

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