The tech world tends towards consolidation, with buyers and users settling on one or a few main options.
YouTube for video, Amazon for shopping, Google for search, and so on.
Shouldn’t companiesand governmentsuse more reliable, less centralized software?
Oopsy daisy.Shekai / Unsplash
“Standardization is a key component in not only efficiency but also in security.
Monoculture
Security is boring, and not just for you and me.
Standardization makes things easier.
This is how I feel every time I have to use Windows.Joshua Hoehne / Unsplash
Joshua Hoehne / Unsplash
But as with any monoculture, when disaster strikes, it strikes hard.
Instead, they should look to another model: open-source, aka “free” software.
Viktor Forgacs / Unsplash
Most commercial software already includes open-source elements.
Open.Viktor Forgacs / Unsplash
Governments should keep funding free software.
In anopen letter published on Thursday, the founders of Mastodon called for exactly this.
Meanwhile,Switzerland now requiresthat the Swiss government release its own software as open source.
The fix is simple: Stop using proprietary and monolithic software and switch to open source.
The problem is that this takes effort.
Governments can justify this effort because their goals line up with those of open-source software.
After all, it’s not like an executive is going to get fired for buying Windows.
