Free Software provides roughly a
trillion dollars in value to everyone who uses software. It
has many benefits;
Cost (Free Software isn't always free but it comes with a lower TCO)
The freedom to study, modify, and use as well as redistribute
Greater flexibility and able to be audited.
In practice the benefits often outweigh the
drawbacks. The drawbacks are real of course, they include;
Zero marketing budgets
No one to call when something goes wrong
Use often requires expertise and support
As a consequence of these drawbacks the benefits of Free
Software, and open source for that matter, are often limited
to large companies which have the expertise and budget to
manage and develop software. But there are benefits that are
felt more generally one significant one is the way that Free
Software has on both software development and the software
supply chain. It has made both practices more robust and
resilient because you can view actual source code and build
(or rebuild it).
This has a big effect on security because you can do two important things;
Secure the software supply chain with robust encryption
Create software that is "secure by design"
If that last point reminds you of the CRA, it
should. The CRA has been influenced by modern software
practices which in turn have been influenced heavily by Free
Software.
