Pertti Karppinen (OH6KTR) wrote:
> On the internet (the real `The Net'), there is a well established tradition
> that is called free software or open source. One of the most used programs
> around the net, is perhaps the sendmail utility. It's source code is freely
> available on the net. Don't You think that internet would long ago been
> swamped shut by `nasty hiccoughs' if the before mentioned was true?
> As a rule, most programs, especially widely used, evolve much more rapidly
> after the source code is published.
No I dont. Internet is different from packet radio. It's a fact that
people cause major trouble in a network cause they insist on running
their *own* software on their nodes even if it has severe, known bugs.
>
> Let's take the two examples from above. First the "Falcon"-TNC. The problem,
> deduced from the description, seems to be lack of programming knowledge.
> Obviously the people who did the ` slight modifications within the software'
> never heard off diff and patch utilities. Usually one's modifications can
> be applied to newer versions of a program with few or no modifications at all.
Not true. And the original assumption was that poeple tend to keep their
hands off materia they don't understand. That's also not true.
Gruss,
Matthias
