https://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-eye-obsolete
I"m convinced that any software deployed for medical reasons - implants, tools, analytics, doesn't matter - needs toolchains that generate reproducible builds stored in escrow that are made public the moment device support ends.
@mhoye All devices deserve this treatment - often the only reason hardware support gets abandoned is because there’s a small percentage of customers still using perfectly functional legacy hardware that suits their needs, and paying an engineer to apply patches isn’t cost effective.
Legacy hardware can live a good second life through firmware projects like #OpenWRT.
@JustinDerrick
I heard it is mandatory in France for a failed company's assets to be auctioned, I heard of software products bought up cheap that way. Extend that to public ownership if nobody bids, and it may be a start. Free-and-open all software might need a different business environment.
@mhoye
