TheOpenAnalyst

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In 2001, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer famously referred to open source software, specifically the GPL, as intellectual property cancer.
These days, Microsoft has moderated its stance. “Open source is neither an industry fad, nor a magic bullet,” the company explains on the open source section of its Web site. [...]

Ounce Labs, makers of Ounce 6 code analyzer for vulnerability scanning, say that recent criticisms surrounding the security of Open Source Software are off-base and, in some cases, counterproductive to security itself.
“Most of the security arguments against open source software are misleading. There is a myth out there that because the bad guys can see [...]

Claims that open source software compromises security are largely false and misleading, a Waltham, Massachusetts-based software risk analysis company said today.
Officials with Ounce Labs Inc. say that the relative security of software – be it open source, commercial or home-grown – really just depends on whether security was a top priority during the development cycle.
Ounce [...]

A quote attributed to various sources goes as follows: “Technology is neither good nor bad, nor is it neutral.” It takes the shape you give to it, but it will always take one shape or another. The same could be said of open source, and ought to be.
I say “ought to”, because over the last [...]

The flurry of lawsuits in 2008 alleging infringement of open source software licenses underscores the importance of investigating a company’s use of open source software and addressing the risks of such use in investment or merger and acquisition documents.
For businesses developing proprietary software products or electronic devices that run proprietary software (such as medical equipment, [...]

Recently, 15 executives at open source companies sent a letter lobbying the Obama Administration to consider open source solutions. The letter, signed by executives at companies like MuleSource, Compiere, OpenLogic, and Unisys, espoused belief that “the open-source industry is changing the world of software in many of the ways [Obama has] promised to changed American [...]

The manner in which open source tools are developed lends a level of security assurance to the applications that are built on this model, said Sun Microsystems executives.
Roman Tuma, Asia South software practice managing director at Sun, noted that due to the inherent nature of open source, anyone can review the source codes to look [...]

Microsoft and its channel partners are bound together with the glue of mutual commercial success. That’s a big reason why Microsoft VARs are always quick to defend the software giant’s interests. Criticize Microsoft in front of a group of partners and you may find yourself being forced to run for cover.
So it wouldn’t be a [...]

Today’s big tech news in the United Kingdom is a self-serving prognostication that once again states that “open source is less secure” than proprietary software.
This comes from a U.S. company called Fortify, whose business it is to search for code flaws. Citing its own research, Fortify suggests that open source as a whole is inherently [...]

The British Conservative Party was wrong to slate the U.K. Government for its approach to open source, and U.S. outfit Fortify Software has come up with research to prove it. The bottom line: open source is just too risky anyway.
According to Fortify, comments made by Tory shadow Chancellor George Osborne on the Government’s alleged failure [...]