<story><title>There is no “software supply chain”</title><url>https://iliana.fyi/blog/software-supply-chain/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mikewarot</author><text>The author of an open source project usually makes NO guarantees and assumes no liability. They&amp;#x27;ve tossed a blueprint into the world.&lt;p&gt;When you decided to use it, you took on all of its technical debt and design decisions as your own. You can&amp;#x27;t fault the author if you use it in an environment they didn&amp;#x27;t have, or didn&amp;#x27;t intend it to be used in, or in a manner that wasn&amp;#x27;t intended. They left an artifact, they did NOT make an agreement to support it.&lt;p&gt;If someone makes a mistake in a book, there&amp;#x27;s no obligation for the author to correct it. If someone misunderstands the ideas and goes on to do some horrible deeds using it as justification, it&amp;#x27;s not the author&amp;#x27;s fault.&lt;p&gt;Open source software is, for the most part, an unsupported gift economy. It isn&amp;#x27;t commercial, and it certainly isn&amp;#x27;t a chain... there&amp;#x27;s no delivery to be had... something was tossed over the wall, and it may never happen again.&lt;p&gt;We Tims have been waiting for the next episode of Hello Internet for a while now... it may never come.  That is also the nature of open source software.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>numbsafari</author><text>Funny thing, most commercial software also comes with T&amp;amp;Cs that say the make no guarantees and assume no liability. e.g., Microsoft Windows 10 retail license:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Neither Microsoft, nor the device manufacturer or installer, gives any other express warranties, guarantees, or conditions.&lt;p&gt;And their liability is limited to...&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; at its election, either: (i) repair or replace the software at no charge, or (ii) accept return of the software (or at its election the device on which the software was preinstalled) for a refund of the amount paid, if any.&lt;p&gt;So, maybe they&amp;#x27;ll fix, or maybe they&amp;#x27;ll refund you your money and you discontinue your use of the software. Maybe they&amp;#x27;ll issue a fix that you incur the cost of installing and testing.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.microsoft.com&amp;#x2F;en-us&amp;#x2F;Useterms&amp;#x2F;Retail&amp;#x2F;Windows&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;UseTerms_Retail_Windows_10_English.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.microsoft.com&amp;#x2F;en-us&amp;#x2F;Useterms&amp;#x2F;Retail&amp;#x2F;Windows&amp;#x2F;10&amp;#x2F;U...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>There is no “software supply chain”</title><url>https://iliana.fyi/blog/software-supply-chain/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>mikewarot</author><text>The author of an open source project usually makes NO guarantees and assumes no liability. They&amp;#x27;ve tossed a blueprint into the world.&lt;p&gt;When you decided to use it, you took on all of its technical debt and design decisions as your own. You can&amp;#x27;t fault the author if you use it in an environment they didn&amp;#x27;t have, or didn&amp;#x27;t intend it to be used in, or in a manner that wasn&amp;#x27;t intended. They left an artifact, they did NOT make an agreement to support it.&lt;p&gt;If someone makes a mistake in a book, there&amp;#x27;s no obligation for the author to correct it. If someone misunderstands the ideas and goes on to do some horrible deeds using it as justification, it&amp;#x27;s not the author&amp;#x27;s fault.&lt;p&gt;Open source software is, for the most part, an unsupported gift economy. It isn&amp;#x27;t commercial, and it certainly isn&amp;#x27;t a chain... there&amp;#x27;s no delivery to be had... something was tossed over the wall, and it may never happen again.&lt;p&gt;We Tims have been waiting for the next episode of Hello Internet for a while now... it may never come.  That is also the nature of open source software.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>throwaway894345</author><text>&amp;gt; You can&amp;#x27;t fault the author if you use it in an environment they didn&amp;#x27;t have, or didn&amp;#x27;t intend it to be used in, or in a manner that wasn&amp;#x27;t intended.&lt;p&gt;It goes even farther than that: you can’t fault the author even if you &lt;i&gt;did&lt;/i&gt; use it in the intended manner.</text></comment>