Advocacy Closed Source May Kill You When 2000 Comes If abstract talk of improving software reliability doesn't impress you, consider this: there's an MIS disaster looming on the horizon called the Year 2000 or Y2K problem. After midnight December 31 1999 every piece of software you own that uses two-digit dates is going to go insane. This could kill your business. (If you're still in any doubt that Y2K is serious trouble bearing down on you like a runaway freight train, see Ed Yourdon's Y2K site.) If your MIS programmers can't read the sources of the software your company relies on, how can you know if it will survive the Y2K problem? You certainly won't be able to tell by printing out the block of bits that is all your closed-source vendor gave you. So maybe your vendor has told you that they're "Y2K compliant". Do you trust your vendor's promises? Enough to bet your business on them? If you rely on closed sources, that's exactly what you're doing. And given the service record of most closed-source software vendors, I wouldn't use those promises to bank on having a job – or even a company to go back to – for very long after the dates turn over. But don't take our word for it. Ask each and every one of your closed-source vendors if they will agree to compensate you for Y2K-related business losses incurred by the use of their software, in writing. If they don't – and you know they won't – what does that tell you about the risks of closed-source software? Open source doesn't guarantee your survival, but at least it will give you a chance. If you have a fiduciary responsibility to your stockholders, what does that tell you about what you must do next? When something like the Y2K problem is looming, fully open sources from every one of your vendors is not a luxury. It's a survival imperative.

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