Re:Bug Report 949446: “i can see all source code of all proj...
by dredmorbius on Monday February 16, 2015 @02:39PM
(#9058770)
That's a great point, though also one that bears investigation. One of the FUD points that Microsoft long made against Free Software was that "anyone could see the code".
Turns out that there's a lot of access to Microsoft's codebase as well, it just happens differently.
There's sharing with various vendors, including device driver and applications development companies, to greater or lesser extents.
More significantly, there was a program under which universities (notably in Canada as I recall) had access to much or all of the NT / XP code base under a restricted license. The possible scope of exposure was huge.
And of course, there are unintentional disclosures -- I've heard of, and been at, companies whose source code was leaked, often in its totality, sometimes multiple times.
The difference being that those who receive such code cannot comment openly on it or provide fixes to bugs as is the case in Free Software. They're limited to identifying exploits for their own benefit or others'.
Turns out that there's a lot of access to Microsoft's codebase as well, it just happens differently.
There's sharing with various vendors, including device driver and applications development companies, to greater or lesser extents.
More significantly, there was a program under which universities (notably in Canada as I recall) had access to much or all of the NT / XP code base under a restricted license. The possible scope of exposure was huge.
And of course, there are unintentional disclosures -- I've heard of, and been at, companies whose source code was leaked, often in its totality, sometimes multiple times.
The difference being that those who receive such code cannot comment openly on it or provide fixes to bugs as is the case in Free Software. They're limited to identifying exploits for their own benefit or others'.