David A. Wheeler's Blog
Wed, 07 Jul 2004
New release of “Why OSS/FS? Look at the Numbers!”
I’ve made a new release of my paper “Why Open Source Software /
Free Software (OSS/FS)? Look at the Numbers!”
It’s a tome, and getting even longer, as more stuff becomes
available.
This is basically a minor release, with various small additions
and improvements here and there.
Here are some highlights:
-
I’ve added references to the interesting paper
Linux Adoption in the Public Sector: An Economic Analysis
by Hal R. Varian and Carl Shapiro (University of California, Berkeley;
1 December 2003).
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I’ve also added lots of information on the
major Microsoft Internet Explorer vulnerability that’s been
undergoing a lot of press.
IE has been undergoing some really nasty exploitation as of
mid June 2004, and Microsoft only released a “fix” on July 2, 2004;
but Microsoft had NINE MONTHS to fix it, and didn’t.
OSS customers can patch their systems, but a proprietary
customer doesn’t have that option. A proprietary vendor that
ignores such a nasty vulnerability for that long is performing a
nearly criminal act; they’re at least aiding criminals.
That’s especially crazy because Microsoft has said they’ve been
working hard on security since 2002; I think that’s probably true,
but this sure is a SCARY lapse.
CERT and SANS recommend switching away from IE
as one of the options for IE users.
-
I added a reference to the
Indian presidential announcement about OSS/FS.
-
Added a link to the COSPA project
-
Fixed typos, per very helpful comments from Ian McIntosh.
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