Programmers break their own open source code to create "protestware"

Stupids. Stay away from open source and pay what you get for.

It is pretty impossible to do web development today without having open source libraries/frameworks somewhere in your chain, unless you go vanilla JS + HTML + CSS.
You might also think you only use stuff by the big guys, but you only have to go a couple of levels deep before you find a package that's owned by a single dev.

**** guys who break it on purpose, but if I were the dev for log4j where a security flaw was discovered, I would not have put in a minute of my personal time to fix it without a significant paycheck up front.
 
Microsoft edge. Comes with my paid Windows 11 OS. I will not have this issue with Microsoft products.
Microsoft (as well as most big tech companies) are now one of the largest contributors to open source software. It now widely used in their products and services. There are more Linux VM's deployed in Azure than Windows.
 
Microsoft (as well as most big tech companies) are now one of the largest contributors to open source software. It now widely used in their products and services. There are more Linux VM's deployed in Azure than Windows.

i would think there are more linux vms on azure because its cheaper then windows vms ;)
 
i would think there are more linux vms on azure because its cheaper then windows vms ;)
Yes and I wonder how many MySQL and Postgres databases versus MSSQL!

I do know though that MS have actively partnered with Canonical, Red Hat and others for a few years on the Linux offerings in Azure
 
.net is open source :D

It is, but it is also not at risk of the type of problems described in the article. Open Source repos owned by big companies won't just be deleted or have malicious code injected to make some kind of statement. Even if FB wanted to go full activist, they are more likely to just add a banner to FB rather than do something to React.
 
It is, but it is also not at risk of the type of problems described in the article. Open Source repos owned by big companies won't just be deleted or have malicious code injected to make some kind of statement. Even if FB wanted to go full activist, they are more likely to just add a banner to FB rather than do something to React.

If all parties that can or are allowed to commit code to the project agree to inject malicious code, it can happen. Simple as that.
 
I understand WHY they're doing it, I DON'T AGREE with it however. What is developed for the world's community in open-source code should be divorced from political influence. Yes, a few places have added Ukraine flags and blah blah but actually breaking it, and turning it into something malicious based on your political views sort of defies the whole Open Source ethos to me.
 
Ultimately, this will probably back fire on the developers and their project - regardless of whether the software is open or closed source. How can you trust software where the developers has shown they are willing to deliberately include malicious code?
 
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X