Focusing open source on security, not ideology [Video]

In today’s world where everything gets hacked, conversations about security are what’s truly important, especially to attract younger developers to open source.

Credit: NicoElNino / Shutterstock

Underlying the proliferating memes about the CloudStrike update fail is a certain smugness that such things won’t happen to you. Yes, it’s true that Microsoft may be particularly susceptible to such things. As the US Cyber Safety Review Board has found, “Microsoft’s security culture [is] inadequate and requires an overhaul,” but let’s not kid ourselves. Could something equally catastrophic happen in Linux land? Maybe not that exact issue, but Linux systems have been ripped open by supply chain attacks like Heartbleed repeatedly in the past. No, that doesn’t make them bad, any more than the CrowdStrike issue makes Windows machines bad. This is just the world we live in. Everything breaks, and everything gets hacked.

Yes, we absolutely should try to avoid breaks and hacks, but real safety comes in how …