Wietse Venema Quotes

• However, writing software without defects is not sufficient. In my experience, it is at least as difficult to write software that is safe - that is, software that behaves reasonably under adverse conditions.

  Wietse Venema

  Writing, Experience, Safe

  45 Copy quote

• Lack of documentation is becoming a problem for acceptance.

  Wietse Venema

  Acceptance, Documentation, Becoming

  30 Copy quote

• Defect-free software does not exist.

  Wietse Venema

  Technology, Doe, Software

  15 Copy quote

• Most of the effort in the software business goes into the maintenance of code that already exists.

  Wietse Venema

  Business, Effort, Maintenance

  9 Copy quote

• This will surprise some of your readers, but my primary interest is not with computer security. I am primarily interested in writing software that works as intended.

  Wietse Venema

  Writing, Computer, Surprise

  52 Copy quote

• Writing software that's safe even in the presence of bugs makes the challenge even more interesting.

  Wietse Venema

  Writing, Interesting, Challenges

  7 Copy quote

• For many people my software is something that you install and forget. I like to keep it that way.

  Wietse Venema

  People, Way, Forget

  4 Copy quote

• Coming back to the topic of computer security, the TCP Wrapper is an example of such a safety net. I wrote it when my systems were under attack by someone who appeared to walk through walls.

  Wietse Venema

  Wall, Safety, Example

  4 Copy quote

• Sure, but competition is good for the user.

  Wietse Venema

  Competition, Users

  7 Copy quote

• When I write software, I know that it will fail, either due to my own mistake, or due to some other cause.

  Wietse Venema

  Mistake, Writing, Causes

  7 Copy quote

• Windows favors multi-threading, which means that a service is implemented by one single process.

  Wietse Venema

  Mean, Favors, Window

  8 Copy quote

• The challenge with Postfix, or with any piece of software, is to update software without introducing problems.

  Wietse Venema

  Challenges, Pieces, Updates

  4 Copy quote

• The Postfix security model is based on keeping software simple and stupid.

  Wietse Venema

  Stupid, Simple, Software

  4 Copy quote

• Qmail out of the box works fine, so people will want to use it regardless of licensing restrictions, even when the software does not ship with their system software.

  Wietse Venema

  People, Doe, Use

  4 Copy quote

• Postfix keeps running even if one Postfix process dies; Windows requires that someone restarts the service.

  Wietse Venema

  Running, Window, Process

  4 Copy quote

• One bug in an SMTP server can open up the whole machine for intrusion.

  Wietse Venema

  Machines, Bugs, Intrusion

  52 Copy quote

• My reply is: the software has no known bugs, therefore it has not been updated.

  Wietse Venema

  Bugs, Software, Known

  7 Copy quote

• Like all software, Qmail can survive only when it keeps up with changing requirements.

  Wietse Venema

  Requirements, Software

  4 Copy quote

• As of today, the Postfix mail transport agent has almost 50,000 lines of code, comments not included.

  Wietse Venema

  Agents, Lines, Mail

  7 Copy quote

• I want to avoid locking people into solutions that work only with Postfix. People should have a choice in what software they want to use with Postfix, be it anti-virus or otherwise.

  Wietse Venema

  Should Have, People, Choices

  4 Copy quote

• In a previous life I wrote the software that controlled my physics experiments. That software had to deal with all kinds of possible failures in equipment. That is probably where I learned to rely on multiple safety nets inside and around my systems.

  Wietse Venema

  Safety, Kind, Physics

  52 Copy quote

• I was going to visit IBM for six months as a visiting scientist. Now, six months is a lot of time, so I came with a whole list of projects that I might want to work on.

  Wietse Venema

  Six Months, Want, Might

  16 Copy quote

• At the time the Sendmail program had a very poor reputation with respect to security, with four root vulnerabilities per year for two successive years.

  Wietse Venema

  Respect, Years, Two

  4 Copy quote

• I don't expect an overnight change of all desktops to what the US Military used to call B3 level security. And even that would not stop users from shooting themselves into the foot.

  Wietse Venema

  Change, Military, Feet

  52 Copy quote

• Adding functionality is not just a matter of adding code.

  Wietse Venema

  Matter, Code, Functionality

  7 Copy quote

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