Open-source

This is a page about the Open-source syndrome. See Open source Disease entry for the other meaning.

Do you enjoy not referencing, citing, or properly acknowledging another's work, only for another individual to access your written material and accept it as the truth? Then open source is just the thing for you! Write what you want, say as you please, it's like being a child, only you're an adult with responsibilities, except you're on the internet so it just doesn't matter! Who cares? The Internet Police certainly don't, they're busy investigating real crimes like 'fraud' and 'homosexuality'. A reason for parents to be concerned? Or just kids being kids? Biology says you can't be a parent without being a kid first, so suck on that discipline! Whatever side of this controversy you're on, one thing's for sure: Open-source is here, it's been around for ages, and it's not going away any time soon, unless you run away from it (for the French audience) or shoot it in its communist face (US audience), delete as appropriate.

Open-source of course refers to the hot fashion of being out in public with more and more source code exposed. Some worry that this makes today's youth "cheap", or "too easy to take advantage of". Others feel that it's downright disrespectful of onlookers with more traditional intellectual property values.

"They're like little tramps, running around in broad daylight with their code hanging out; boys with FORTRAN showing on their chests, girls with Java clearly visible on their bellies", says one local woman who prefers not to be identified. "It's an outrage."

But the kids say it's not such a big deal. According to one tenth grader, the exposed source code is only helping the kids to fix one another's bugs. "It's a communal thing", says Jennifer of Austin, TX. "Anyone who has a problem with that is just too old-fashioned."

But it doesn't look like the controversy is going to cool down any time soon. Dr. Shannon Kints stressed, "The unprotected and frequent use of open source has been known to result in many treatable, yet unnecessary, ailments, commonly referred to as Open Source Transmitted Diseases or OSTDs. Halitosis and open sores are quite common umoung open source advocates."

"Fix one another's bugs? I would have never said something so disgusting when I was her age."

See also

• Terrorists
• Communism
• Linux
• Lunix
• Free as in Beer