[LINK] What's a reasonable level of code-checking?

[Danny Yee]

The big advantage free software has is that support can be provided
by anyone.  This allows Linux distributors, for example, to support
(as in provide patches and upgrades to) a complete system.

I can point my Fedora Core machines at a couple of repositories and
have pretty much all the software I need kept up to date -- compilers,
editors, office suites, web browsers, chat clients, bioinformatics
packages, you name it.

That I don't ever look at the source code for any of this myself
is besides the point.  It's access to that code, and the freedom
to modify and redistribute it, that allows Fedora, SuSE, Debian,
etc. to package and maintain free software, and to provide me with
an integrated system.

Windws Update and OS X Software Update work fine for the core
operating system, but then on top of that one has to deal with separate
auto-upgrade systems for every third party app installed.  In many
cases, the only option is to manually monitor announcements lists for
reports of security problems and patches, and install those oneself.
(That's also true for more obscure software for Linux, of course.)

Danny.
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