Re: [tlug] Running without Gnome/KDE/xfce/whatever. (was: Ubuntu 16.04-LTS Japanese Text Input)

[Raymond Wan <rwan.kyoto@example.com>]

On Thu, Apr 28, 2016 at 5:33 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen@example.com> wrote:
> I didn't mean that it was easy to do a good job of dealing with design
> issues posed by observed failures.  Just that "the security mindset"[1]
> isn't necessary to identify failures in most cases, simple observation
> will do.  I'm more pessistic than you -- I don't think "most software
> developers and their managers" are as much optimistic as they are
> willing to impose the costs on users rather than do the necessary
> thinking to get to a good solution.


In past company jobs, I have worked with vendors that develop software
for us (i.e., I represented the client).  And I was appalled at what
software development has become.

Though not specifically related to security, none of the vendors we
worked with were interested in being a "little" proactive.  Any
usability or security problems would be allowed into the release.  It
was the client's job (who may or may not have an IT background;
luckily I did) to catch it.  I suspect they did this so that the
client has to request the change which they would then bill us for by
including it into their "man hours" calculation.

What if I was a doctor and I gave some prescription to a patient and
relied on the patient to give me feedback on which drugs I should or
should not prescribe?

It was really disturbing since the client presumably pays the vendor
for their domain knowledge.  And it wasn't just one company but every
one we approached [*].  I didn't know that software development as a
(small) business had become like this.

I was almost embarrassed to be in the same profession as them.

Ray

[*]  Yes, it could be a problem with the companies we were
approaching.  We didn't have a lot of money so we could not approach
large vendors -- only small/medium sized ones.