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A couple of lessons on the hazards of proprietary softwareA couple of lessons on the hazards of proprietary softwarePosted Aug 11, 2006 6:50 UTC (Fri) by dlang (✭ supporter ✭, #313)In reply to: A couple of lessons on the hazards of proprietary software by jstAusr Parent article: A couple of lessons on the hazards of proprietary software
if you can understand the data format you don't need any particular software to access it.
and FOSS software doesn't nessasarily equal flexibility in accessing the content (see the articles about the gimp not having a documented file format until the last week or so as a prime example)
yes, with FOSS software you can reverse engineer a data format more easily, but unless the software authors agree with (and maintain compatability with going forward) the specs that you reverse engineer it's a purely temporary documentation, which could be as bad as any propriatary software (albeit without as strong a lock-in, but for many large FOSS projects, the users are mostly along for the ride, and have to adapt to whatever file format changes the project introduces, until such time as the annoyance factor growes large enough for the project to be forked, so don't completely dismiss the lock-in aspect)
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A couple of lessons on the hazards of proprietary software Posted Aug 14, 2006 21:04 UTC (Mon) by leoc (subscriber, #39773) [Link] Obscurity through complexity is NOT the same thing as obscurity through secrecy. So long as you have access to the source code to the version of the GIMP you are using, then you have a 100% accurate set of "documentation" on how to load and manipulate the data. Yes, you could lose the source to the version you are using, but then all your hard drives and backups could gte destroyed in a fire, too. Storing information in digital form is fundamentally risky, and losing the source code to a critical peice of infrastructure is something you can screw up, but noone can walk into your place of business and TAKE the source code from you. With closed source software, they can. That's the point.
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