Beating Microsoft to the punch

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the grace of open source, small o, small s

There is a quiet dignity in doing the right thing. The fact is, and sensationalism and factionalism aside, many, many, many interests in the world depend 24/7 on the functionality of the Windows computing platform in its varius forms. It is in the interest of all who benefit from the use of these systems--that is, all of us--that these systems not be compromised and broken, and that those who depend on them not be exploited or injured by their failure.

Put all the politics, all the platform boosting and bashing and cathedralling and bazaaring aside, and we need useful protection for those platforms sooner rather than later when illdoers do what is being done with this WMF vulnerability. At base it doesn't matter who or where that protection comes from, as long as it really *is* protection, and as long it doesn't come at too steep a price (money, functionality, compatibility, time). Guilfanov saw the vulnerability and its prospect rightfully frightened him, and so, in the manner of one foiling a robbery or helping at an accident scene, he simply did the right thing: Having the necessary expertise, he created and promulgated, for free, a well-qualified patch for the flaw. Understanding that only openness to inspection would allow informed decisionmakers to confirm its function and accept its use before any remedy could come from Microsoft, he also simultaneously publicly released its source code. All cards on the table. That's what opening one's source to public inspection is about. It's not a strategy; it's what works, what's *necessary*, in such a situation.

This patch of Guilfanov's is therefore a gift twice over. It's a gift because it's free, and it's a gift because it's the right thing to do. It's the "citizen's arrest," the first aid, version of Open Source: open source with a small o and a small s, in which any possible pro or con politicking related to the capital O, capital S, version is trumped by the grace of one person having merely done the right thing to do.

Posted by: dpnewkirk   Posted on: 01/04/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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