Hello everyone, and sorry for my bad english. So lets start with a usual topic about Open Source, and that is “everybody can see the code of a OpenSource programm to see if it is malware”. And my question is: how people that cannot read a single line of a programming language manage to do that? I mean, they can just trust in everybody that say which software is secure or not. If the software is a virus or malware, or poses security risks, people won’t know that unless they’re programmers, and so the same thing happens to these kinds of people as used to happen with proprietary software: they have to rely on those who “know” to find out if something. I find this quite problematic because, as I said, anyone who doesn’t understand the code wouldn’t be able to verify whether such a program is secure or not, and would have to place their trust in third parties. That aside, it’s also worth noting that most software has hundreds, if not thousands, of lines of code, which would make it take longer to parse all that code—and even more tedious than reading a typical “EULA.” Can you think of any way to fix this?
In short the answer is this: you have two companies selling you boxes, one that it’s literally impossible to look inside, and another one that’s very easy and encouraged to do so. Even if you know nothing about bombs, if both those boxes claim to not explode, which one do you trust more?
It’s sorta the same thing, it doesn’t necessarily means that the closed box is inherently less safe, but even if you personally haven’t verified that the open box doesn’t contain anything dangerous you can be somewhat safer in the knowledge that people COULD have verified it.
haha interesting point of view, i like it!