Comment Same idea, different context (Score 1) 373
I work as an IT consultant, doing SOX work. I have 'a friend' who is in the same line of work, who recently installed an open-source interpreted language package on his work laptop (they are not locked down, but if you break it or get it infected, you're responsible, and probably unemployed) in order to solve a client problem that was costing the client a fortune in billable hours. When he broached the solution to management (of the consultancy, not the client), he was told that despite the open culture of the organization and emphasis on innovation and efficiency, since this language was not part of the standard load for laptops, it could not be used period, and there was no machanism to get it approved. Period.
Community-built software is not perceived as 'safe' - 'It could have a trojan or virus built into it' is the exact phrase used by Sr. management in their demurral. When 'my friend' suggested that the likelihood of say, the Perl distribution, containing some kind of malicious code was vanishingly small and the code was way too open to scrutiny for such things to get in, and that closed-source firms have a far worse record on the subject of malware than established open-source projects, he was dismissed out of hand.
As such, he is developing his app, on his own computer, on his own time, and trying to come up with some kind of 'sales pitch' to get management to listen. Suggestions welcome - I'll pass them to him, although I'm sure he'll read this post.
Community-built software is not perceived as 'safe' - 'It could have a trojan or virus built into it' is the exact phrase used by Sr. management in their demurral. When 'my friend' suggested that the likelihood of say, the Perl distribution, containing some kind of malicious code was vanishingly small and the code was way too open to scrutiny for such things to get in, and that closed-source firms have a far worse record on the subject of malware than established open-source projects, he was dismissed out of hand.
As such, he is developing his app, on his own computer, on his own time, and trying to come up with some kind of 'sales pitch' to get management to listen. Suggestions welcome - I'll pass them to him, although I'm sure he'll read this post.
