Microsoft to reveal Palladium source code (News.com)

[Posted June 25, 2002 by dave]

While some Microsoft executives are testifying in court that source code availability damages security, others in the company are actually releasing source code to improve the security. "Microsoft, long a proponent of keeping source code secret, plans to publish the source code to a critical part of its Palladium project to enhance security, a representative of the software giant said Monday."

Cognitive dissonance

Posted Jun 27, 2002 20:40 UTC (Thu) by DeletedUser2025 ((unknown), #2025) [Link]

This gives me some serious cognitive dissonance. Microsoft's goal in publishing the source seems to be (1) to get others' help in making the code do what they want it to do, and (2) to convince others that their software should be trusted. My goals in having the source are to (1) make the code do what *I* want it to do, and (2) to fix (or have others fix) the things in the source that I can not trust.

Ultimately, it's about control. With true open source, I have the control over my computer. If an application or OS does something I don't like, I can change it. With Microsoft, and especially with Palladium, Microsoft has increasing control over my computer. No amount of "publishing the source code" because I "need to trust this code" will ameliorate the loss of control of my computer.

(I know, I'm preaching to the choir...)