Ignition by Inductive Automation Really Grinds My Gears
Tags: tutorial, opensource, learning
Published: 2024-04-27 01:20:28

Because it’s closed source.

In what ungodly ways are big name OEMs collecting our manufacturing data & who are they selling it to? We talk about cybersecurity threats abroad & hacking committed by malicious state actors. Have we ever stopped to ask how state actors got the intricate levels of intelligence to hack complex industrial controls systems? News flash, it’s from domestic actors.

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## <u>**People just want to do their jobs**</u>

How insulting to believe that people are not smart enough to be mindful of their interactions with a system. Besides, allowing people more programmatic means of accessing tools results in a more digitally mature workforce. Don’t you want that? Or could there potentially be some sort of irrational factors as to why you don’t want your workforce growing to have a more advanced skill set?

If my capitalism calculator works correctly, it would dictate that a more digitally advanced workforce would demand more $$$ as their skills/services result in a higher ROI for the business. Not just that, a digitally advanced workforce would know how to deploy & manage open source software solutions, thereby controlling the means of production without any corporate middleman commercial software. Furthermore, the cost of maintaining that product/service would also go down, therefore those cost savings should be passed onto the customer. Afterall, the market hates inefficiency and bloated products/services.

When companies get too big for their britches, they believe that their workforce, who innovated & brought to life all the products/services the company enjoys, would be nothing without the company. Nowhere is this karmic outcome more apparent than the countless developers who left Blizzard & founded indie game studios that all went on to be successful completely independent of Blizzard. Quality products with a fraction of the resources of their corporate conglomerate counterparts.

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## <u>**Open source communities get abandoned!**</u>

So what lol. What if a business goes bankrupt? Or chooses to sunset a product line at their say-so? We all know who to call when there’s ghosts around. But what are you gonna do when the license server Nazis come for you by refusing to re-grant physical media containing license keys that can be authenticated locally? At least with open source software / FOSS, you can rebuild the entire product & choose what to include.

For those that continue to fight the losing battle — OT is software development. Hardware cannot operate in a fully autonomous way & give production staff data analytics without software. Customers, end-users, people & society overall does not want creepy closed-source hardware & software that only a small select few are allowed to control & know what goes on behind the scenes. Let’s all stand up against clandestine activity & protect our controls infrastructure through open source software & hardware.

Shorter one this time but more to come. Stay tuned and I’ll see you in the next one. Thanks for your time, even if we disagree.

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DISCLAIMER: I am not sponsored or influenced in any way, shape, or form by the companies and products mentioned. This is my own original content, with image credits given as appropriate and necessary.