Below is a copy of an e-mail I sent to the ISC in response to a claim that orphaned open source projects display the dark side of open source:

These dangers are not specific to open-source. For example a copy paste from the article with the words 'open source' removed still rings true:

"This is the downside of software. What happens to it when the original maintainers tire of it, move on to other things, get hit by the proverbial bus,...?"

You need to evaluate the project team around a software product whether it is open source or proprietary.

If anything this is a positive of open source; The original project team went dead, but you still have security patches regularly being released, something unlikely to happen if a proprietary product's company went under.

UPDATE: added 'Below is' to first sentence.

I am quite excited to announce that as of next month, Yusuf Motara aka the Samurai Poodle or 'that guy way cooler than Haroon' will be joining our security services group. Yusuf rocks, and is cleverer than most, also he is a very good friend. I quite like the idea of working with my geniuses that are also my friends.

The competition to the bloated bureaucracy, Telkom, was launched on the 1^st of September. Ladies and gentlemen, Neotel.

They currently aren't offering consumer services but plan to by April 2007. They have a fairly comprehensive FAQ available. Currently they are only offering wholesale broadband which should result in lower broadband prices from ISPs soonish. They have also done a good job of selling international carrier throuput to the cellular providers and claim we will soon have international CLI as a fringe benefit.

While it is a pity our government has chosen not to pursue a policy of full deregulation of this market (gosh, did I just say that), I welcome any competition to our evil monopoly Telkom.