From code war to Cold War (BBC)

From code war to Cold War (BBC)

Let's put it this way:

I have some software at home that I use for composing music. It's proprietary. The company has gone out of business. *Some* of the pieces wound up in another company's product, but effectively, the product no longer exists in the form which I have been using.

There are things about this piece of software that are broken. There are things that become less and less effective as the underlying OS changes. Yet, there is absloutely *no way* for me to improve, restore, repair, or otherwise modernize this piece of work.

If the software had been "copy-protected," I also would be unable to restore its operation in the event of a magnetic media failure (a common occurrence.)

I view this state of affairs as pathetic. If the best solution available is to mandate escrow of all commercial source code, that's fine with me.

I had a range-hood in my kitchen. The chimney for that range-hood was toward the right of the stove. When I bought a new hood (because the old one was useless, dirty, badly damaged, and so on,) the installer refused to put it in because the chimney was in the wrong place. I hired a metal-worker to modify the chimney, and now I have a working range hood. I didn't have to beg the hood maker, nor my house builder, nor the duct-manufacturer, nor anyone else for permission to make this improvement.

In fact, I could have maybe even restored the original range hood (except it didn't fit our decor.)

When the same sort of freedom arrives in the computer industry, I'll know we've arrived where I'd like to be.