Re:Novell misses the point, maybe not completelly (Score 1)

This points out the fact that when criminals (or potential criminals) can get their hands on source code they'll sift through it looking for exploits.

Of course they will. All the more reason to accept peer reviewers, as they do the same thing. Why should criminals have an advantage?

You're right, of course. But the minute you release the source code a whole lot of security flaws might (will?) be found. They will get fixed but in the meantime, there will be many very exposed systems.

I'm not saying open source isn't better or that under the closed source system those bugs will not be found. I'm just trying to point out that changing to an open source system is difficult and it may cause a lot of problems.

I cannot see how to do such a change without making one vulnerable to these type of problems which might cause a consumer backlash.