From: "Geo." 

"Thees Peereboom"  wrote in message
news:d0h3vuc7uudknp4qqv9k26l3cgulj1o78n{at}4ax.com...

> Exactly, the more known, the better. But OSS adds an additional
> advantage to that, not only can users defend themselves (by at least
> knowing that there is a flaw) but they can also repair it themselves
> while users of branded software will have to wait for their vendor to
> acknowledge the flaw and secondly send out a fix for it.

While that sounds reasonable, I don't agree. When was the last time anyone
here coded up a fix for sendmail, bind, the linux kernel, or apache? The
reality is that just like with branded software the users have to wait for
the guy who wrote the software to fix the software.

The only realistic advantage to open source is that if someone decides they
have had enough (the software is effectively discontinued) someone else can
pick up the development effort where with branded someone would have to buy
the product to continue development.

Geo.

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